At its Delivering the Future event on Wednesday, Amazon revealed plans for its next-generation robot-powered delivery warehouses. The first of these advanced fulfillment centers is located in Shreveport, Louisiana. Spanning 3 million square feet across five floors, the new site is roughly equivalent to 55 football fields, showcasing the culmination of Amazon’s decade-long work in robotics, which began with its 2012 acquisition of Kiva.
Unlike previous models, where robots were integrated into existing workflows, this new center represents a ground-up, greenfield approach to robotics and artificial intelligence. Though specific figures have not been released, Amazon confirmed that the new warehouses will deploy ten times as many robots as a standard fulfillment center. The company already has close to a million robotic systems operating in facilities across the U.S.
Among the technologies at the Shreveport location are Kiva-style autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), as well as inventory management arms named Robin, Cardinal, and Sparrow. Amazon is also introducing Sequoia, a multilevel containerized inventory system designed to make storing and picking goods faster and safer. In the new facility, Sequoia is five times larger than its initial deployment in Houston last year, holding over 30 million items.
The recent hiring of Covariant founders Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan is expected to play a key role in deploying artificial intelligence throughout the system. The Shreveport center will serve as a critical test bed for integrating these AI technologies with the robotic workforce, addressing the challenge of coordinating communications between different systems, which has long been a hurdle in the industry.
Despite the increase in automation, Amazon emphasized that humans will still play an integral role in these facilities. Once fully operational, the Shreveport location is expected to employ 2,500 people.
Featured Image courtesy of The Nation
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