Amazon has announced a great advance in the automation of warehouses with the launch of Vulcan, a new robot equipped with a sense of touch, capable or handling around 75% of the items in the company’s fixed satisfaction network.
Presented at the “Entreing The Future” event of the retailer in Dortmund, Germany, Vulcan represents what Amazon calls a “fundamental jump forward in robotics”, with a touch detection with AI that allows him to identify and manage elements depending on what they feel, not just how they look.
“It’s not just seeing the world, he’s feeling it,” said Aaron Parness, director of Robotics at Amazon. “Enable capacities that were impossible for Amazon robots so far.”
Unlike previous robots in the Amazon fleet, which are based on suction and computer vision cups to move elements, Vulcan’s ability to “feel” allows you to collect and classify a wider range of products, and store a topic on the upper stairs, reducing the need.
Vulcan will join the growing army robots or Amazon warehouse, which now numbers more than 750000, designed to work with humans at the collection stations. The company says that these innovations are aimed at improving efficiency and security, not completely replacing human workers.
“There is no completely automated,” said Tye Brady, the main Robotics Technologist in Amazon. “People will always be part of the equation. The robots are here to handle the servile, the mundane and the repetitive.”
Brady compared Vulcan’s collaborative nature with R2D2 of Star Wars, calling him a “surprising collaborative robot” that supports humans instead of supplant.
Amazon says that the next generation of robots, driven by automatic learning, are being designed to navigate in complex warehouse spaces, adapt to new tasks and even request help to improve their performance. Vulcan, for example, can learn autonomously to move safely and efficiently with people and other machines.
“It is really exciting to join both the mind and the body,” Brady said. “It is finally here, and it just begins.”
Amazon is also implementing a new automated packaging technology that uses AI to Creative Radios and reduces waste. This year more than 70 machines will be installed in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, with more planned by 2027.
It is likely that the launch of Vulcan revives concerns about automation and labor displacement, especially in the light of Amazon’s industrial action on salary and working conditions in their warehouses.
A 2023 Goldman Sachs report suggested that 300 million jobs worldwide could be replaced by AI by 2030, while the research of the Tony Blair Institute estimates that up to 275,000 jobs in the United Kingdom could move in the peak of the peak of the peak of the peak of the peak of the peak of the peak of the peak of the peak of the peak of the peaks of the axes.
But Brady insists that humans remain essential, not only for supervision, but also for practical judgment, whether it is detected a broken article in a delivery or detect a cybersecurity problem that automation could be lost.
Vulcan’s debut coincides with the launch of the United Kingdom of Amazon Haul, a low -cost purchase site that offers products below £ 20 as Amazon increases competition with Shein and Temu.
As Amazon continues to expand its robotic abilities and the logistics driven by AI, the company seems to be with the intention of staying at the forefront both in the innovation of electronic commerce and in operational efficiency, even as the human implications of that progress become more difficult to ignore.
Jamie Young
Jamie is a senior reporter of Business Matters, who brings more than a decade of experience in commercial reports of the United Kingdom. Jamie has a business administration title and participates regularly in conferences and industry workshops. When he does not inform about the last business development, Jamie is passionate about the mentoring of promising journalists and businessmen to inspire the next generation of business leaders.
