Amazon announces its first fully autonomous mobile warehouse robot

Image: Amazon

The first fully autonomously mobile robot will be used by Amazon to move large carts. The robot is called Proteus, and Amazon says it can safely navigate around human employees.

According to Amazon, the Proteus robots have advanced safety, perception, and navigation technology, and a video shows them shining a green light in front of themselves. The robot stops moving when a human steps into it.

The company has more than one robotic system. Amazon hopes to deploy Cardinal, a robotic arm that can lift and move packages up to 50 lbs., in warehouses next year. The company claims that it can pick out individual packages even if they are in a pile.

Amazon shows off technology that could allow employees to use barcodes instead of hand scans. Workers are standing in front of a camera system that recognizes the packages. There isn't a lot of detail on how it works other than some combination of machine learning and a 120 frames per second camera system, but the effect is similar to what we've seen from the company's Just Walk Out tech that lets it build cashierless stores. We reached out to Amazon to find out what the system is looking at and will let you know if they reply.

There are labor concerns with new technology. Despite recent reports that Amazon could soon struggle to find workers, the company says it is not looking to build machines. Replacing people with machines is a mistake that could lead to a company going out of business, according to a lead at Amazon. robots could be used to set a pace of work that humans can't keep up with, something we've already seen happen at the company with automated management systems It seems like the new scanning system could cause unrealistic expectations for workers.

According to Amazon, its new robots could improve safety. Proteus could reduce the need for people to manually move heavy objects because it operates in places where workers wouldn't lift and twist heavy packages. The company is working on a robot that will deliver containers to workers instead of having them bend or climb to reach them.

The company's CEO recently promised to address the injury rates at the company's warehouses though he has minimized reports that its workers are hurt at double the industry rate by calling the company's rates "misunderstood."