[DonRotolo]

If we think about it, we can pick up totes from the bottom, sides, front/back or top.

Which is best depends on your team's decisions on robot capabilities. What do you want the robot to be able to do?

To me, top and bottom are harder than sides. But one needs to consider the case of picking up the middle tote from a group of 3: Is there enough room to get in there to pick it up? Or, can you develop some other way to 'free' the tote so it can be picked up from the sides (or front/back)?

Thinking out loud, maybe all we need is a small 'hook' that pulls the tote out from the group to expose the sides (or front/back) enough to be picked up.