Humanoid robots now being tested at an Amazon warehouse

Digit humanoid robots being tested at an Amazon facility near Seattle, as seen on October 18, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

To date, Amazon’s robots operating within its network of vast logistic hub warehouse facilities visually resemble oversized Roombas, which are used to lift entire racks to bring products to human employees to initiate the packaging process.

The company now uses 750,000 robots across multiple generations, including its newest conventional addition of the Sequoia system at a fulfillment centre in Houston, Texas — just in time for the busy holiday season.

It is expected Sequoia will enable the identification and storage of inventory up to 75% faster than the previous system, and reduce processing time for orders through a fulfillment centre by up to 25%.

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But it was the reveal of a humanoid robot that stole the show at last week’s Amazon showcase event held at the company’s robotics research hub and fulfillment centre near Seattle, which was attended in person by Daily Hive Urbanized.

Amazon is now testing the use of “mobile manipulator” robots to grasp and handle items, replicating human movements in the long process of bringing customers their purchased goods.

Is this the future? #Amazon has started testing the use of humanoid robots within a fulfillment centre setting.https://t.co/0LboaGY3Dj pic.twitter.com/vX4e6pslTK

— Kenneth Chan (@iamkennethchan) October 23, 2023

Digit humanoid robots being tested at an Amazon facility near Seattle, as seen on October 18, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

This next-generation robot now being tested at the Seattle facility is called Digit, which was developed by Oregon-based Agility Robotics.

Digit has a pair of grey-coloured arms and legs, a turquoise-coloured torso, and a projector-sized head with two illuminated “eyes.” With its bipedal mechanism, this robot can walk forwards and backward and make bending and turning movements to use its arms to retrieve Amazon’s yellow totes.

During this initial real-world testing phase, the quartet of Digit robots is being used to deal with tote recycling, which is a highly repetitive process of picking up and moving empty totes once emptied of inventory.

The company says there is a “big opportunity” to expand the use of mobile manipulator robots such as Digit to work “collaboratively” with human employees.

“I believe that the best robots are collaborative robots,” said Tye Brady, the chief technologist for Amazon Robotics, during the event, adding that the company wants to automate more of the “menial, mundane, and repetitive” processes currently practiced by humans.

“It’s a beautifully choreographed ballet, right? People and machines working together harmoniously. And that burden gets placed on us, the designers, to build a better machine, right? We’re the ones building machines that the burden is on us to build not only better machines, productivity-wise, but better machines that allow us to improve safety.”

Digit humanoid robots being tested at an Amazon facility near Seattle, as seen on October 18, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Of course, the overwhelming leading concern is that the further advancement and expansion of the use of robotics, mechanical automation, and artificial intelligence will replace more human jobs.

When asked by the moderator, Brady suggested the gained efficiencies and productivity levels of robotics will enable companies to redirect their investments into new innovations and other types of jobs.

“We have new job categories. We have the people that take care of the robots, but have also now more jobs that we’ve created because of the growth from the mindset that we have of people and machines working together,” he said, before likening the forthcoming expansion of robotics to how dishwashers have freed up time for humans to conduct other more complex tasks.

During the event, Amazon also revealed a new aerial drone to support its ambitious strategy to grow its Prime Air drone delivery operations to 500 million packages annually by the end of the decade.

Remember that warehouse scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark? #Amazon pic.twitter.com/WSIxFv3XPx

— Kenneth Chan (@iamkennethchan) October 20, 2023

Existing Amazon robots. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Amazon Prime Air’s new Mark 30 drone. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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