Amazon’s Kiva platform got an upgrade to better perform warehouse duties.

Amazon Announces Big Changes- Delivery Drones And Warehouse Robots

About a year ago, Amazon released news of  its robotic-driven warehouse. Since it was Amazon, it could have been expected to come with all the bells and whistles. However, the new technology needed some upgrades. One year later, Evan Ackerman of Spectrum.ieee.org says Amazon has not one but two new robots doing major work in its warehouses.

The highlight of the announcement is Proteus, which is like one of Amazon’s Kiva shelf-transporting robots that are smart enough (and safe enough) to transition from a highly structured environment to a moderately structured environment, an enormous challenge for any mobile robot. Take a look at the video below:

This is what Amazon says about Proteus:

“Proteus is our first fully autonomous mobile robot. Historically, it’s been difficult to safely incorporate robotics in the same physical space as people. We believe Proteus will change that while remaining smart, safe, and collaborative.

“Proteus autonomously moves through our facilities using advanced safety, perception, and navigation technology developed by Amazon. The robot was built to be automatically directed to perform its work and move around employees—meaning it has no need to be confined to restricted areas. It can operate in a manner that augments simple, safe interaction between technology and people—opening up a broader range of possible uses to help our employees—such as the lifting and movement of GoCarts, the nonautomated, wheeled transports used to move packages through our facilities.”

After the recent news that Amazon actually delivered a product with a drone in California, it’s clear it’s going even more mechanized than imagined, but with AI it’s easy to program and send out little mechanized assistants to complete the business of the day.

Proteus is certainly the star of the show here, but Amazon did also introduce a couple of new robotic systems. One is Cardinal:

read more at spectrum.ieee.org