Amazon’s David Clark explains the way Amazon is employing warehouses full of robots to help package your holiday gifts.
Orders that used to take up to 90 minutes to complete now take as little as 10 to 15 minutes to complete because of robots developed by Kiva Systems.
The robots navigate around the warehouse by following a series of computerized barcode stickers on the floor. Each robot drive unit has a sensor, which prevents it from colliding with other robots. When the drive unit reaches the target location, it pivots and slides underneath a storage pod and lifts the storage pod off the ground through a corkscrew action. The robot then carries the pod to the specified human operator to pick the items. The robots can lift about 750 LBS.
Kiva Systems is a Massachusetts based company that is known as a mobile robotic fulfillment systems manufacturer, and which was acquired by Amazon in March 2012 for $775 million.
Amazon emphasizes the robots are not implemented to replace associates, but to enhance their jobs. More than 15,000 robots have been deployed.
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