With the announcement of two technological advances, Amazon takes a big step toward total automation.
Key Details
- E-commerce giant Amazon has been in the process of creating robots to deliver packages easier and replace warehouse employees.
- The company has succeeded with many robots including a drone that delivered packages in certain cities, but the company has announced new innovations.
- Amazon has created two new robotic innovations that were recently announced—an autonomous drone and a robotic arm.
Why it’s news
Amazon is constantly busy considering that the company ships around 1.6 million packages a day.
Amazon is always working to create something that can make package delivery easier and it has recently announced two new innovations that will help—an autonomous drone and a robotic arm.
In order to deliver a package Amazon must have a driver and delivery truck take the package. In order to cut back on delivery drivers and have faster delivery times, the company has been working on drones to take small packages to customers shortly after ordering.
Amazon has had a drone in the past, but it was only able to make deliveries in two cities in California and Texas. The new drone will be quieter and smaller and can deliver packages fast, but not only that it will be able to better navigate the weather and make it to its destination.
The other new innovation—a robotic arm.
In order for the correct packages to go out for delivery people in Amazon’s warehouses must sort the packages and put them into the correct bins. The company has been working for a while to create a machine that can do that job.
The new robotic arm is called the Sparrow and can grab millions of items of different sizes and textures and sort them into the correct bins.
The robot could allow for Amazon to significantly cut down on warehouse employees and save the company a big chunk of money.
Although these projects have been announced it will probably still be a while before they actually hit Amazon and can be seen working.
