A method of creating a multidrop pattern of articles for robotic placement in layers on a pallet, the method comprising: presenting on a user interface a pattern depiction of any currently positioned representations of articles on a pallet; presenting on the user interface a case conveyor depiction of a case conveyor and the more than one article arrayed on the case conveyor; presenting on the user interface an end effector depiction of independently controllable zones of the end effector ; presenting on the user interface a control affordance for robotic control operations to perform a multidrop of the more than one article in an end effector of a robotic arm for placement, wherein presenting the control affordance comprises soliciting a position for a zone gap relative to the more than one article; receiving a user input to select a plurality of article images displayed on a display unit, each article image corresponding to respective ones of more than one articles; receiving a first user item location input defining a first placement location of a first article of the more than one articles; receiving a second user item location input defining a second placement location of a second article of the more than one articles; receiving a third user input indicating a superimposed position of the independently controllable zones on the more than one case conveyor; receiving a fourth user input indicating an engagement status of each independently controllable zone to engage a respective one or more of the more than one article; receiving a fifth user input indicating a relative position for the zone gap; converting the third, fourth, and fifth user inputs into a pick sequence of robotic control operations, and converting the first and second user inputs into a place sequence of robotic control operations, to pick the more than one articles together and perform a multidrop of the first article at the first placement location and the second article at the second placement location. presenting on a user interface a pattern depiction of any currently positioned representations of articles on a pallet; presenting on the user interface a case conveyor depiction of a case conveyor and the more than one article arrayed on the case conveyor; presenting on the user interface an end effector depiction of independently controllable zones of the end effector ; presenting on the user interface a control affordance for robotic control operations to perform a multidrop of the more than one article in an end effector of a robotic arm for placement, wherein presenting the control affordance comprises soliciting a position for a zone gap relative to the more than one article; receiving a user input to select a plurality of article images displayed on a display unit, each article image corresponding to respective ones of more than one articles; receiving a first user item location input defining a first placement location of a first article of the more than one articles; receiving a second user item location input defining a second placement location of a second article of the more than one articles; receiving a third user input indicating a superimposed position of the independently controllable zones on the more than one case conveyor; receiving a fourth user input indicating an engagement status of each independently controllable zone to engage a respective one or more of the more than one article; receiving a fifth user input indicating a relative position for the zone gap; converting the third, fourth, and fifth user inputs into a pick sequence of robotic control operations, and converting the first and second user inputs into a place sequence of robotic control operations, to pick the more than one articles together and perform a multidrop of the first article at the first placement location and the second article at the second placement location. <EOS>