Amazon is adopting new robots capable of packing products into boxes. This process is currently still performed by thousands of human workers.
This reports Reuters in an exclusive article based on sources within Amazon. Amazon has long been pushing to automate its fulfilment centres, in which customer orders are processed. For instance, the company has tens of thousands of Automated Guided Vehicles in operation. These vehicles were developed by Kiva Systems, a company that was acquired by Amazon in 2012. After this acquisition, Kiva Systems' AGVs were taken off the market and used exclusively by Amazon.
Packing orders
Now the company is also rolling out so-called CartonWrap robots in its fulfilment centres. These robots are designed to build cartons around orders and can pack 600 to 700 orders each per hour. This is an estimated five times faster than a human employee.
Confirming the news, Amazon reports it is conducting a pilot with the technology. According to a company spokesperson, this aims to increase safety, deliver products faster and realise efficiency improvements in its network.
Canvas Technology
Recently, Amazon also recently acquired Canvas Technology, a company that has developed a fully autonomous cart. The Canvas Autonomous Cart uses 3D technology and software developed in-house by Canvas to find its way around a warehouse or fulfilment centre. In doing so, the robot detects any objects or people blocking its path and independently finds a route around them.
Canvas Technology is incorporated into Amazon Robotics, the new name of Kiva Systems, which was acquired in 2012. Amazon Robotics is a 100% Amazon-owned subsidiary that supplies exclusively to Amazon. TechCrunch recently visited Amazon and, based on a report on this, reported that Amazon now has some 100,000 robotics systems in use in 25 different fulfilment centres. These include robotic systems such as the AGVs of the former Kiva Systems, as well as third-party robots such as Fanuc.
Fulfilment centres without lighting
Amazon aims to eventually fully automate its fulfilment centres and have them operate without human employees, an anonymous source within Amazon told Reuters. Eventually, fulfilment centres should even be able to operate without lighting and thus in darkness, which is relevant with regard to energy costs, among other things. The deployment of CartonWrap robots aligns with this. Reuters estimates that the CartonWrap robots will eventually replace 1,300 human employees spread across 55 fulfilment centres in the United States.
Incidentally, the US e-commerce giant does not expect to achieve fully automated fulfilment centres anytime soon. Scott Anderson, Regional Director of Operations at Amazon, previously reported to Reuters that Amazon expects to need at least another decade for this. "In its current form, the technology is still very limited," Anderson said. "The technology is still far from the fully automated workstation we need."
As an example, Anderson cited fulfilling an order of bananas. "I want my bananas to be firm, while others want their bananas to be ripe. How do we let a robot choose between these?" said Anderson. Also, when picking up a product from a barrel, robots would often damage other products. The efficiency of today's robots would also leave something to be desired. For example, many robots can only pick up one product at a time in most cases, while in some cases it is more efficient to pick up several products simultaneously in one move.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Reuters
Source: Amazon
Source: Tech Crunch
