Humanoid robots have been in development for several years, with high hopes from industry that the final version of this type of technology will find use in manufacturing and warehouse applications.
When it comes to fulfillment, particularly, there are many benefits to using robotics for day-to-day operations, including the ability to offload the types of repetitive tasks that lead to ergonomic stress in humans.
And in warehouse applications, there’s nobody with more testing ground than Amazon. By recent estimates, Amazon operates more than 300 million square feet — and the e-tailer has often been at the forefront of automation technologies.
The latest effort from Amazon is testing a humanoid robot called Digit. A product of tech company Agility, Digit is a bi-pedal bot designed specifically for industrial and warehouse tasks.
According to TechCrunch, Amazon’s previous projects with warehouse robots have all been wheeled, and Digit’s legs “present a good deal of possibility.” This is because existing workspaces are already built for humans, with things like shelf heights and staircases often serving as impediments for existing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that don’t feature the right form factor.
That said, Amazon leaders have been quick to stress that the future will undoubtedly contain a mix of many autonomous technologies, perhaps paired together into new methods entirely.
According to Amazon Robotics chief technologist Tye Brady, using Digit as a “mobile manipulator” could also mean adding in things like ID and sortation systems, all in a push toward ways “to innovate for our customer and improve safety for employees.”
Image Credit: Amazon
