Amazon announced a new robot, called Sparrow, which the company says is the first warehouse robot that can “detect, select and process individual products.” The company says the machine is capable of recognizing and processing “millions of items” and will reduce the repetitive tasks its human employees have to perform.
The message from the company announcing the robot doesn’t say exactly how it will use Sparrow, but it’s not hard to imagine many more uses for something that could lift and move individual products in Amazon’s warehouses.
“In our current research and development efforts, we are working with Sparrow to consolidate inventory before packaging it for customers,” said Xavier Van Chau, a company spokesperson, “but the potential applications of this technology in our business are many.” wider.”
Van Chau also told The edge that Amazon Sparrow is not currently rolling out to warehouses en masse: “Sparrow is currently in research and development and we are actively testing it in our operations. We are excited about the progress we are seeing, but there are many factors to consider before deploying these technologies on a large scale.”
Robots and humans, working together?
Amazon has maintained that its robots are not replacing human jobs. The companies news item celebrating 10 years of Amazon robotics addressed that idea specifically, saying the company’s goal is to allow robots and humans to “work together safely and harmoniously to deliver for our customers.” Tye Brady, chief engineer at Amazon Robotics, predicted that if humans were left on the water for robots, the company would likely go out of business if speak with Forbes in June.
Thursday’s post also addressed those concerns, but in a slightly different tone. The post highlights all the jobs created to design and deploy robots at the company and promises that the company will help employees “transition and advance their careers into roles that work with our technology.” To this end, the post marks Amazon’s Internship Programwhich is intended to teach employees how to maintain the robotic systems.
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