For years, Amazon has used robots to help fulfill customer orders. But now the e-commerce giant is testing the use of humanoid-looking bots to work at its warehouses.
The company is currently experimenting with the robot, dubbed Digit, at an R&D site south of Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered. The machine comes from Agility Robotics, which developed Digits to be a bipedal bot that can pick up objects like a human would.
“Digit can move, grasp, and handle items in spaces and corners of warehouses in novel ways,” Amazon says. “Its size and shape are well suited for buildings that are designed for humans.”
Digit may trigger concerns Amazon will replace human warehouse workers with machines. Amazon has been burning through human workers due to attrition; one leaked memo from 2021 estimating that the company will “deplete the available labor supply in the US network by 2024.”
(Credit: Amazon)However, the e-commerce giant says Digit will work “collaboratively” with Amazon’s human workers. “Our initial use for this technology will be to help employees with tote (container) recycling, a highly repetitive process of picking up and moving empty totes once inventory has been completely picked out of them,” the company says.
The e-commerce giant also emphasized that using robots to support human workers has been central to how Amazon deploys automation. The company has “over 750,000 robots working collaboratively with our employees, taking on highly repetitive tasks and freeing employees up to better deliver for our customers.”
In the meantime, Agility Robotics—which has received funding from Amazon—plans on opening a new robot factory in Salem, Oregon. The upcoming facility aims to produce over 10,000 robots per year. Agility also says it plans on making the Digit robot available to its partners next year, with general availability in 2025.
