Billionaire Jeff Bozos’ e-commerce company, Amazon, has taken a drastic step and launched robots to work alongside people to test their efficiency.
“We’re excited to see the impact our technology is having in Amazon’s operations. We now have over 750,000 robots working collaboratively with our employees, taking on highly repetitive tasks and freeing employees up to better deliver for our customers,” said the multinational conglomerate.
It added that the robots will be doing repetitive tasks. There are two kinds, ones named Digit and others, Sequoia.
Mobile robots move containerised merchandise directly to a gantry, according to the business.
This is a tall structure with a platform holding equipment that can either resupply totes or send them to an employee to select out inventory that clients have requested.
“These totes (containers) come to employees at a newly-designed ergonomic (designed for efficiency and comfort) workstation that allows them to do all their work in their power zone, between mid-thigh and mid-chest height,” Amazon said.
“With this system, employees will no longer have to regularly reach above their heads or squat down to pick customer orders, supporting our efforts to reduce the risk of injuries.”
This also supposedly ensures that once client orders are collected from inventory, the remaining inventory must be aggregated such that the container is filled and site storage is efficiently managed.
“From the hardware to the artificial intelligence embedded in our robotics, we are passionate about technology that makes the work experience of our employees safer, easier, and less repetitive,” the company said.
“Doing so gives our employees the time and opportunity to take a step back, look at how orders are moving through our sites, and find new ways to delight and serve our customers,” concluded Amazon.
However, this innovation has had netizens worried that the robots will end up eventually replacing the human workers as they can operate without taking breaks and can work all day.
I don’t know who needs to hear this but we’ve done absolutely nothing to make corporations afraid to replace us with robots. Amazon is currently testing Digit, a robot that can grasp and lift items, at warehouses this week.
— 🅹🅾️🅴🆈աrecκ ☭ (@joeywreck) October 20, 2023
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Amazon has been accused of having awful warehouse conditions, where workers reportedly relieve themselves standing at the work station instead of going to the toilets.
This led to the Amazon Labor Union being created and officially recognised in April of 2022.
IOL