Latest news with #warehouseRobots
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Amazon's Millionth Warehouse Robot Is Here And It's Getting Smarter
An Amazon employee checks the robotic warehouse at Amazon's Robotic Fulfillment Centre in Sutton ... More Coldfield, England. Amazon Robotics announced last week that it just hit a major milestone with over one million warehouse robots deployed. In addition to the announcement, the company unveiled DeepFleet, a new AI foundation model that acts like a traffic controller for its machines, helping them move more efficiently avoid bottlenecks. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently tweeted a simple question: 'How can we help operations employees access inventory more efficiently?' The company says that's the north star for its robotics strategy. These machines aren't about replacing people, they're about speeding things up. From a Handful to a Million Robots Amazon started testing shelf-moving robots back in 2012. Since then, the use of warehouse-floor robots has become central to how Amazon fills orders, with over a million robots now operating across more than 300 warehouses. These robots are now the workhorses of Amazon's fulfillment centers. The millionth unit came off the production line in Japan, marking the shift from simple conveyors to fully automated helpers. These bots aren't just flashy, but they do heavy lifting, literally. The robots are squat robotic carts the size of a footstool. They slide under a shelving tower, lift the whole rack, and bring it to a worker who plucks the ordered item. When the shelf is empty, the robot puts it back and hunts for the next pick. Every trip it makes shaves a little walking time from a human packer's shift and pushes an order closer to getting out the door. It's all about cutting down the time it takes to get an order from shelf to shipping box. DeepFleet: Real-Time Routing for Robots The newly announced DeepFleet system is built on Amazon's AWS infrastructure and uses live warehouse data to reroute robots on the fly. It looks for jams or bottlenecks and finds better paths, helping robots avoid wasting time in the warehouse equivalent of a traffic jam. 'Think of DeepFleet as an intelligent traffic management system for a city filled with cars moving through congested streets,' says Scott Dresser, VP of Amazon Robotics. 'DeepFleet coordinates our robots' movements to optimize how they navigate our fulfillment centers. This means less congestion, more efficient paths, and faster processing of customer orders.' The new AI model learns on the fly to steer bots around slow spots, cutting their travel time by about 10 percent and speeding up customer orders. That smarter routing means fewer delays and more predictable delivery times for customers. According to Amazon: More Tech Jobs, Not Fewer In Shreveport, Louisiana, Amazon opened a new fulfillment center last year with its latest generation of robots. According to the company, those robots didn't replace jobs, they created new ones. 'Advanced robotics require 30% more employees in reliability, maintenance, and engineering roles,' Dresser said. New roles range from motor repair techs to data analysts. Repair techs keep the bots rolling, and the analysts use data insights to track robot movement patterns to spot delays. It's not just about operating machines for these new roles, it's about maintaining and improving them. Since 2019, more than 700,000 Amazon workers have joined programs to build up their tech skills. Whether those workers stay at Amazon or move on, the company says the experience prepares them for jobs in an increasingly automated economy. The Bigger Automation Picture Amazon's not alone in using bots to automate the warehouse. U.K.-based Ocado uses thousands of compact bots in its grocery warehouses. The bots zip across grid-like platforms, picking items with near-perfect accuracy. The system can pack a customer's order in seconds. Walmart is working with Symbotic to bring robot-powered sorting to 42 of its distribution centers by 2030. Their CasePick robots can sort cases in under a minute, helping speed up restocking in stores. The trend is clear: companies are investing in automation not just to move faster, but to rethink how and where human workers fit into the process. What's Next for Amazon Robotics Amazon plans to use data from DeepFleet to cut down energy use inside its warehouses. The company is also experimenting with smaller, more nimble 'micro-fulfillment' centers closer to big cities. That could mean faster delivery and a smaller carbon footprint. Eventually, Amazon says AI won't just direct traffic. It'll help decide what products to stock and when, turning warehouses into systems that adjust themselves in real time. 'This is just the beginning. As DeepFleet learns from more data, it will continue to get smarter, driving deeper efficiencies, unlocking more selection closer to customers, and reimagining what's possible in robotic logistics,' Dresser says. The big unknown? How people will fit into a world where machines not only move the shelves but make the decisions too.
News.com.au
6 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Aussie Amazon workers lagging behind in re-training as tech giant continues global automation rollout
Staff at Amazon Australia are not a priority for the massive upskilling happening across the e-commerce behemoth's global network. At a conference this week in Japan, Amazon announced its one millionth warehouse robot was now in use across the planet. The company says globally, 700,000 Amazon workers have been formally 'upskilled' to keep up with this wave of automation - but Australians account for a tiny fraction of these workers. Only one of Amazon Australia's eight 'fulfilment centre' warehouses have the company's patented product-shifting, AI-operated robots; as Amazon accelerates its AI and robotics goals, the company argues relatively few job losses will result, contending people doing repetitive manual tasks will be retrained and 'upskilled'. Compared to Amazon's warehouses in comparable countries, Australian facilities are a step behind the company's newest technology, meaning retraining Australian workers to fix and maintain Amazon's robots is lagging. Information from Amazon says the company has created 700 new categories of jobs globally since introducing robots. A proposed highly-robotised Melbourne warehouse will create more than 2000 jobs, requiring entry-level workers up to engineers and operations managers. 'Australia is one of our last countries to have launched … we're in the process of scaling-up the program.'
CNA
04-06-2025
- Automotive
- CNA
Amazon's delivery and logistics will get an AI boost
SAN FRANCISCO :Amazon wants customers to know that artificial intelligence is not just for writing college essays. In a series of announcements Wednesday, Amazon demonstrated how stockroom robots, delivery people and its sprawling warehouses will all benefit from a hefty dose of artificial intelligence, speeding packages to customer doorsteps. The company said it is forming a new group at its Lab126 device unit focused on creating warehouse robots that will perform multiple tasks when prompted, a significant advance over today's robots that typically are designed for a singular job. Using so-called agentic AI, these robots will be able to unload trailers and then retrieve parts for repairs, according to Amazon. 'We're creating systems that can hear, understand and act on natural language commands, turning warehouse robots into flexible, multi-talented assistants,' Amazon said in a statement, without providing details such as what the robots might look like or cost. Amazon described the advances ahead of a press event Wednesday at Lab126 in Sunnyvale, California, where it gathered robotics and logistics executives for demonstrations. Among the additional announcements are that Amazon is using generative AI to create more advanced maps for its delivery drivers, so that they can more efficiently deliver packages for the final few yards (metres) of their journeys. The specialized AI will provide Amazon fine detail on building shapes, as well as obstacles and anything else they may need to navigate a package drop-off. 'This innovation is making it easier for Amazon drivers to find the right delivery spot, especially in tricky places like big office complexes,' Amazon said. That technology could be critical to specialized eyeglasses Amazon is developing for delivery drivers that Reuters reported exclusively last year. The company hopes to outfit drivers with screen-embedded glasses that free their hands from GPS devices and give them turn by turn directions while driving, as well as while carrying packages at their destination. Finally, Amazon said it AI will help it more efficiently predict what products customers will need and where to improve its same day delivery operations. On a more basic level, it means that winter coats likely will not be stocked in Phoenix warehouses in summer though Amazon suggested that other factors the software will consider are price, convenience, relying on factors such as weather and sales events, like Prime Day.
