ROBOTIC MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEM

A method of conveying articles on a robotic material handling system, the method comprising: positioning a nose conveyor surface of a robotic material handling system proximate to an article pile, the nose conveyor surface having two or more parallel conveyors that are distal to and proximally feed a rearward conveyor that is laterally narrower than the nose conveyor surface; robotically moving one or more articles per operation onto the nose conveyor from the article pile; scanning the nose conveyor surface to detect respective locations of any articles received on the nose conveyor surface; determining whether the respective locations of any scanned articles prevent immediate rearward conveyance by the two or more parallel conveyors at a first speed; and in response to determining that the respective locations of any scanned articles prevent immediate rearward conveyance, causing at least one of the two or more parallel conveyors to operate at the first speed and at least another one of two or more parallel conveyors to operate at a second speed that is not equal to the first speed.