Robot handles millions of diverse products for Amazon
Amazon has introduced Sparrow, a new intelligent robotic system that streamlines the fulfilment process by moving individual products before they get packaged—a major technological advancement to support the company’s employees.
Over the past decade, Amazon has been at the forefront of innovation, making significant investments in robotics and advanced technology within its operations. Its dedicated teams of roboticists, engineers, software developers and other experts have been developing solutions that allow it to automate fundamental capabilities – like how it moves, handles, sorts, identifies and stores products.
A critical part of Amazon’s fulfilment process happens before items are even packaged for shipment to customers. Sophisticated technology moves totes to employees who select inventory to be packaged. Once the items are boxed up, Amazon’s existing robotic arms – like Robin and the recently announced Cardinal – can then redirect packages to various locations in the warehouse before they begin their delivery journey.
In its focus on robotics, Amazon knew it had an opportunity to dig deeper into research and development to support individual product handling, recognising an opportunity to invent new technology that could help handle products at Amazon’s scale. The result is Sparrow, the first robotic system in Amazon’s warehouses that can detect, select and handle individual products in its inventory.
Amazon says Sparrow represents a major advancement in the state-of-the-art technology of industrial robotics. Leveraging computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI), Sparrow can recognise and handle millions of items, important when you consider that last year Amazon employees picked, stowed or packed approximately 5 billion packages—or over 13 million packages per day.
Beyond the technological advancements of Sparrow, what Amazon is truly excited about are the implications the technology has and the ways it will benefit its employees and customers. Working with Amazon employees, Sparrow will take on repetitive tasks, enabling employees to focus their time and energy on other things, while also advancing safety. At the same time, Sparrow will help Amazon drive efficiency by automating a critical part of the fulfilment process.
