Amazon says it has developed a new warehouse robot Vulcan that can “feel” some of the items it touches.
The two-arm Vulcan, which allows you to operate products within the storage compartment that Amazon has in its warehouse, uses a force sensor to help you know when you come into contact with an object. One arm rearranges items in the compartment, while the second arm (equipped with a camera and suction cup) grabs the items.
According to Amazon, Vulcan is trained in physical data, including force and touch feedback, to select around 75% of Amazon’s stock, and can improve over time. The robot has been deployed in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany, and has processed 500,000 orders so far.
The Vulcan is just the latest addition to Amazon’s warehouse robot fleet. Hundreds of thousands are used to meet customer orders across global storage facilities. Critics have argued that Amazon’s robot investment is an effort to replace human workers, but Amazon has argued that this is not true, and that robots like Vulcan simply make warehouses safer.
Source link
