Amazon’s new Vulcan Wealth Center robot doesn’t look like a humanoid, but it has some very human traits like “feeling” its ability to handle items.
Amazon introduced Vulcan at a future event in Germany on May 7.
“Based on key advances in robotics, engineering and physical AI, Vulcan is our first robot with a touch feel,” said Dr. The company said In the statement. The event is a demonstration of Amazon’s technological innovation.
Vulcan can store from fabric-covered pods stored in Amazon stock or pick items from fabric-covered pods. It has a human-like skill when dealing with objects. Forced feedback sensors help the robot avoid damaging goods.
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Amazon’s Vulcan robot uses a forced feedback sensor to “feel” objects that it picks up or mounts.
The sucking cup and camera system come into play when Vulcan pulls items out of the bin.
“When the suction cup grabs it, the camera watch is to make sure it does the right thing, only the right thing, avoiding the risk that our engineers call “co-extract non-target items.”
Vulcan is in place at fulfillment centers in Spokane, Washington and Hamburg, Germany. It mainly aims to achieve low storage items that require humans to bend or store them high, requiring employees to use ladders.
The rise of robots in traditional human-driven workplaces may be a sensitive topic. Amazon clearly shows that it sees Vulcan as an assistant to its employees, not as a substitute for them.
Vulcan can handle 75% of the items stored in the fulfillment center. It aims to know what it can move and people who need to seek human help – such as the robot human tag team.
Vulcan is part of the ongoing collaborative robotics campaign.
“Since robots are often excellent on certain reproducible tasks, and humans perform better on others, this trend will continue,” Gartner analyst Dwight Klappich told CNET. “I wouldn’t say that when humans work with robots, warehouses are always more effective — that is, they are more effective together.”
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Amazon’s Vulcan robot can evacuate or store items from the fulfillment center’s stack.
The physical AI systems used by the robot include “identifying items that Valkan can or cannot handle, finding space in the trash, identifying boxes for toothpaste tubes and paper clips, and more.” AI is trained on everything from socks to electronics and continues to learn while the robot works.
Although Vulcan may be sensitive to its specific tasks, it does not reach the height of human physical skills.
“If you think of what it takes to play Chopin’s piano concerto in physics, we’re still a long way from this agility,” Krapich said.
Humans and robots can effectively coexist in distribution centers, said Debjit Roy, a logistics and operations researcher at the University of Erasmus in the Netherlands and Indian Management Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India.
“At least for now, distribution center automation for people combined with them is often more efficient, flexible and cost-effective than fully automated centers,” the team said in a summary of research on Harvard’s business review last year.
Vulcan and his ability to “feel” their work is a big step forward in fulfilling the evolution of the central robot.
“The most important thing is that it’s a step forward, but it’s a step forward in a longer journey that can reach some hype,” Krapich said.
The company said robots have long been part of Amazon’s operations, with its fulfillment center deploying more than 750,000 robots.
Over the next few years, Vulcan will launch more centers in Europe and the United States, which increases your chances of future Amazon shipments, and Amazon shipments are the “fingerprints” in which Vulcan is invisible.
