Amazon, announced a ‘fully autonomous’ warehouse robot
Amazon never stops innovating, from Kiva to fully autonomous mobile robots and other robots in between,
high technology has helped Amazon improve the employee and customer experience.
In 2012, Amazon made a big investment to improve productivity in the supply chain by acquiring a robotics company called ‘Kiva’
Today,
Amazon has 520,000 robotic drive units, and have added over a million jobs, worldwide, with a dozen other types of robotic systems in their facilities and around the world,
Amazon’s new robo-gadget ‘Proteus’ did not say exactly when would be introduced to warehouses, or how widely it will be deployed.
*Amazon’s fully autonomous robot ‘Proteus’
Amazon, however indicated that Proteus is built to improve “simple, safe interaction between technology and people.”
The company has a history of promoting robots as a way to make warehouse workers’ lives safer.
Although, Amazon likes to tout its robotics as a way to reduce the physical burden on its workers, leaked internal data published by Reveal in 2020 showed robotic warehouses had higher rates of injury than warehouses that don’t use robots.
Reveal’s investigation suggested robotic warehouses have higher production quotas than non-robotic ones, meaning the physical strain on workers is greater.
Amazon’s focus on robots could also be a way to reduce its reliance on its human workforce.
The robot was built to be automatically directed to perform its work and move around employees, meaning it has no need to be confined to restricted areas
