The world’s largest online marketplace, Amazon made a fully autonomous robot named Proteus, to carry stuff around the warehouse.
This robot resembles a modern vacuum cleaner but does weightlifting with advanced safety, perception, and navigation technology. Besides, Amazon got a robotic arm that can lift upto 50 pounds at a time, and be helpful in the fulfillment centers. Also, there’s a new AI-based scanning technology to automatically scan the products at a faster pace.
Amazon’s Warehouse Robots
Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva, a robotics company a decade ago wasn’t for keeping it idle, but to make robots that help Amazon grow better. And it’s delivering results now, with the company announcing three new technologies used in Amazon warehouses for better productivity.
First up is Proteus, a fully autonomous robot to moves carts around the warehouse. Shaped as a modern-day vacuum cleaner, Proteus is designed to carry the packages with “advanced safety, perception and navigation technology“, says Amazon.
It moves by shooting a green beam ahead of it, and anything that’s interrupting the beam makes the robot stop – so it won’t crash into anyone or anything. Next is a robotic arm named Cardinal, which is designed to reduce the risk to employees in the warehouse.
This robotic arm can pick up packages of upto 50 pounds at one go, read the labels and place them accordingly. Leveraging AI and computer vision, Cardinal can be used to sort the packages as per their categories in a fulfillment center. With initial tests going fine, Amazon is preparing to deploy Cardinal in its warehouses starting next year.
Lastly, there’s an AI-based scanning technology that can scan packages automatically, and quickly. This technology has a camera working at 120FPS speed, powered by machine learning and computer vision to quickly recognize a package while it’s passing through the line.
