Kiva Systems Warehouse Automation at Quiet Logistics

Boston Dynamics builds thinly disguised military robots that are meant to be very flexible and can operate in rough terrain (for 15 min or whatever until the battery runs out, but that's another story). They're hugely expensive literal overkill for a highly predictable and controlled environment like a warehouse, which is why the Kiva robots that Amazon actually uses are basically boxes on wheels. ▶ this video

This is a minor improvement in packaging. It's not automated picking, which will be a big deal if Amazon cracks that. They've been trying and failing for years now. Amazon gave up on their robotic picking challenge after 2017. Here's the winner of the last challenge.[1] Way too slow and not reliable enough. Amazon has about 100,000 robots now. Most are Kiva machines, moving storage racks to human pickers. Here's what that looks like.[2] The pickers stay in one place, take things out of bins brought to them, and put them in outgoing bins. A laser pointer tells them what to pick. That's almost 10 years old, but Amazon has not yet been able to replace humans in that job. [1] link [2] ▶ this video

Yes, anthropomorphic or zoomorphic robots are probably not the most efficient form. If you want to move boxes around, a moving plate is enough. Kiva Systems Warehouse Automation: ▶ this video Moving through public space might require more than a plate for safety and mobility reasons.

Here's a more useful video of Kiva robots: ▶ this video This one shows the picking station, where the humans take things out of bins and put them in other bins. A computer-controlled laser pointer points to the item to be taken out, and a light shows where the item goes, and a bar code scanner checks on the human. The job takes about two minutes to learn, and full productivity for new humans is achieved in about half an hour. There is no possibility of promotion. Machines should think. People should work. Kiva is a huge success. Before Amazon bought them, they had about 20% of online order fulfillment in the US. It's higher now, with Amazon using them. Kiva is so successful because it's so simple to install. All it needs is a big flat floor with some bar code stickers, a supply of cheap shelving units, and the robots. All the robots are small and interchangeable, so they don't have to be repaired on-site and there's no need for expensive on-site technicians and repair shops. So converting to Kiva robots is fast, cheap, and easy. Automated warehousing isn't new, but it used to be a lot more complicated and far more custom. The older systems involved conveyors, machines that moved on tracks, extensive site-specific and product-specific engineering, and good onsite maintenance. Here's a state of the art version of a classic automated storage and retrieval system in a frozen foods warehouse. (The frozen foods industry has been heavily into warehouse automation for decades, because the