We are sure that at some point you’ve dreamed of a robot working for you. Well, that future is closer than you think. Amazon has developed a robot it has called Vulcan. A warehouse robot that has been equipped with a sense of touch, yes. Force sensors, cameras, and artificial intelligence make this robot capable of picking up and storing products with a precision that until now was only possible with human hands.
Vulcan is an advance in robotics that no one was expecting, according to Aaron Parness, director of applied sciences at Amazon.
What is Vulcan?
Vulcan is Amazon’s latest bet. It works through Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they claim it has a sense of touch to recognize objects by contact, capable of picking up, moving, and storing products while processing a large percentage of the inventory during real-world tests. Is Vulcan the end of human labour?
Is it Amazon’s first robot?
No! Vulcan already had predecessors capable of picking and moving items, but it is the first robot capable of “feeling” what it does and manoeuvring items in the most compact compartments, which are generally covered with company fabric.
How does this robot work?
Its main arm looks like a ruler stuck to a flat iron (yes, that’s how Amazon describes it, we’re not making this up), this “invention” makes the force sensors act and help it when it comes into contact with an object, basically to know what strength and speed to apply to avoid damaging the item.
The robot’s other arm has a suction cup that can grab anything it wants to take from the compartments, with a camera and AI to make sure it only picks one item and not several by mistake. Something that would normally be human work, now done by Vulcan.
And it learns from its mistakes
Maybe this is what stands out most about Vulcan, it learns from mistakes and understands how objects behave when touched. When an object falls, gets stuck, or is not recognized, the system logs that error, so it doesn’t happen again.
Where is Vulcan located?
For now, it’s operating in the logistics centres of Spokane (U.S.) and Hamburg (Germany), but this robot has stolen the show after processing more than half a million orders.
According to the company itself, it can handle approximately 75% of available inventory. For now, it’s only being used to pick items located at the top of 2.4-meter stacks and those on the bottom, preventing workers from bending too much or having to climb ladders.
It’s estimated that Vulcan will prevent injuries and improve employee safety. For now, it’s one more team member collaborating with workers to form a “dream team” in Amazon’s warehouses.
A future without workers?
It’s what we always fear (even though we always complain about working, we forgive ourselves the double standard). For now, many fear that Vulcan will become a reality and expand so much that no more workers will be needed in Amazon plants, considering Amazon has more than 1.5 million employees worldwide, although that number has already dropped by 10% since 2022 due to automation.
Does this mean Vulcan will take jobs? For now, no. But it’s not clear. For now, Amazon workers share space with more than 750,000 machines that perform daily operations improving the logistics chain, but we can’t say that in the future Amazon won’t decide to run its plants only with robots because we don’t know for sure.
AI and robots are here to stay, and now they also have touch and intuition. Are we getting closer to starring in I, Robot?