What will it mean for workers if Amazon expands its use of warehouse robots?

Two robotic arms named Robin and Cardinal can lift packages weighing up to 50 pounds. A third, called a Sparrow, retrieves items from containers and places them in other containers.

Proteus, an autonomous mobile robot that works on the ground, can move carts around a warehouse. The bipedal humanoid robot Digit is being tested to move empty containers with its hands. And there’s also Sequoia, a container storage system that can present containers to employees so they don’t have to stretch or squat to retrieve inventory.

According to Amazon, Robin is currently being used in dozens of warehouses. The others are in the testing phase or have not yet been widely rolled out. But the company says it is already seeing benefits, such as reducing the time it takes to complete orders and helping employees avoid repetitive tasks.

However, automation also brings disadvantages for workers, who would have to be retrained for new positions if robots made their tasks redundant.

In October, Amazon held an event at a warehouse in Nashville, Tennessee, where the company had integrated some of the robots.

The Associated Press spoke with Julie Mitchell, Amazon’s head of robotic sorting technologies, about where the company wants to go from here. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: When you get into robotics, how long does it typically take you to adopt a new technology?

A: The journey we took took a few years. Luckily, we’ve been around for over a decade. So we have a lot of core technology to build on. We introduced these special robots – Cardinal and Proteus – to this building in November 2022. We came in and started playing around with what it would look like to pack and move a production order. Less than two years later, we have scaled up and are shipping 70% of the items in this building through this robotic system.

A: We talk about “build, test and scale” and that’s about a two-year cycle for us right now.

Q: It is challenging to build robots that can physically grab products. How does Amazon handle this?

A: As you can probably imagine, we have so many items that it is an extraordinary challenge. We rely on data and put our first prototype in a real building where we expose it to all the things it needs to do. Then we go through all the reasons for failure. We give it a lot of sample sizes in a very short period of time. For example, a few years ago we launched our Robin robotic arm – a package manipulation robot – and we’re at 3 billion picks. The ability to jump into our network, quickly collect data, scale and iterate has allowed us to move quickly.

The challenge itself boils down to three simple things: you have to perceive the scene, plan your move and then execute it. Today these are three different parts of our system. Artificial intelligence will help us change all that, and it will be more results-oriented, like asking you to get a bottle of water. We’re on the verge of that, so I’m personally excited to be here at the dawn of generative AI and use it to dramatically improve the performance of our robotics.

Q: How do you think about the impact of automation on Amazon’s workforce as you develop the technology?

A: With the technology we have deployed here, we are creating new roles for individuals who can acquire new skills to fulfill those roles. And it’s not too difficult to acquire these new skills. You don’t need an engineering degree, just a Ph.D. or any truly technical capabilities to support our robotics systems. We designed the systems to be easy to maintain and provide on-site training to become a Reliability Maintenance Engineer.

We’re working backwards from the idea that we want to employ more skilled workers. These opportunities are, of course, higher paying than the entry-level jobs in our buildings. And partnering with MIT helped us understand what matters most to our team as we deploy these technologies across our network.

Q: Are you facing challenges in introducing these robots into your warehouses?

A: Not in adoption. We integrate it. But these are complex systems and this is the real world, so things go wrong. For example, we had bad weather due to the storms in the southeast. When I look at the data from the robotic systems, I can see that the weather outside is bad because it has a dramatic impact on how the ship’s dock works.

When trucks don’t arrive on time or can’t leave, you notice bottlenecks in the building in a strange way. Containers build up, we have to put them in different places, and then people have to retrieve them. Therefore, communication between what our robotic system is doing and what the employees in the building need to do to recover is important. It is a collaboration of automation and people to solve real-world problems. It’s not about taking over robotics, it’s about creating a system where humans and robotics work together to achieve the goal of shipping products.