Testing initiatives for a new technology are diligently undertaken at the Amazon Robotics and Advanced Technology labs at Seattle and Northern Italy. This hopes to improve the safety of employees by means of tasks such as transportation of packages, carts, and totes through Amazon facilities.
Meanwhile, for safety of employees, movement of totes to transport product via robotic fulfillment centers is one common activity. For such tasks, the latest technology used employs motion capture techniques to learn from the movement patterns of volunteering employees in laboratory environments. So far, the usefulness of the technology has been proven to help design safer movement technology than the simpler ones historically used by ergonomists.
For example, if the position of handles on totes is simply altered this could increase employee safety, and help human workers to avoid place their hands at a place that could cause harm. Another benefit of the modified design is saving employees from constant stretching and bending. While these new additions, do not necessarily save time, at least they contribute for better workplace security.
In fact, to ensure satisfaction of employees, the research teams of Robotics and Advanced Technology periodically consult this with employees. This is to directly know from employees how beneficial the developments have been so far. At this time, general feedback of employees at Amazon is positive.
At a slightly different front, the research team presented another new Amazon robotic technology. The technology is being designed to integrate with human workers on Amazon’s shop floor. Ideally, this type of robotic technology would be able to independently find its way across departments to transport goods, as required.