Elain Brown Science 06.22.2022 01:Jun AM EDT

Amazon Announces First Fully Autonomous Mobile Robot for Its Warehouses

Amazon announced the autonomous robots that will fill their warehouses.

Amazon shows off four new pieces of robotics technology that will soon be used in all of their warehouses across the country, including fully autonomous robots and high-tech scanners.

In total, the company uses four robotic technologies: Proteus, Cardinal, Containerized Storage System, and Amazon Robotics Identification.

Just recently, Amazon announced its first fully autonomous mobile robot, Proteus, meant to move large carts throughout its warehouses. In addition, Amazon also has Cardinal, a robotic arm that can lift and move packages weighing up to 50 pounds, which Amazon hopes to deploy in warehouses next year.

Amazon's Autonomous Robots

Amazon's journey into robotics has since started in 2012. The company made a massive investment to improve efficiency in the production of the supply chain by buying the robotics company Kiva.

The company was well aware of how innovation plays a vital role in fulfilling their overall business. Amazon was also aware of the widespread rumors about their direction of shifting the human workforce to robots. However, the company clarified otherwise. The ecommerce business has added over a million employees world-wide and only 520,000 robot devices.

According to Amazon, "From the early days of the Kiva acquisition until now, our vision has never been tied to a binary decision of people or technology." The company added, "Instead, it was about people and technology working safely and harmoniously together to deliver for our customers."

Amazon's Proteus

Amazon's first fully autonomous mobile robot is Proteus. The autonomous robot is meant to work seamlessly together with humans as it is designed to be collaborative and smart.

According to The Verge, the Amazon-developed advanced perception, navigation, and safety technology is used by Proteus to enable fully autonomous movement throughout the warehouses.

The robot will enhance straightforward and risk-free interaction between people and technology, such as the lifting and movement of GoCarts, which are manual, wheeled transports that are used to move packages through the company's warehouses.

At first, Proteus will be implemented in the areas of the fulfillment centers and sorting centers that are responsible for the outbound GoCart handling.

Part of Amazon's plan is to automate the handling of GoCarts to reduce the need for human employees to manually carry heavy objects around the facility.

Amazon's Cardinal

Amazon is also developing another robot called Cardinal. Amazon's Cardinal is reported to be a robotic workcell that makes use of highly developed artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision to accurately and swiftly select one package from a pile of packages, lift it, read the label, and precisely place the package in a GoCart so that it can continue on its journey.

Amazon is looking to avoid the risk of injuries to their employees by automating areas in their operation wherein employees need to carry heavy packages.

Sorting of packages begins earlier in the shipping process with Cardinal, so the facility is able to complete its tasks in a shorter amount of time. Since Cardinal transforms work that was previously done manually in batches into continuous, automated work, Amazon's shipping operations run more efficiently.

However, this robot is still under prototype testing to be able to carry heavier loads, carrying packages that weigh more than 50 pounds to be exact. The company stated that the robot will be deployed in fulfillment hubs next year.