Amazon debuts new robotic solutions to speed deliveries amid warehouse overhaul

Scott Dresser, VP, Amazon Robotics, blogged in part: “The new robotic solutions, Sequoia and Digit, will support workplace safety and help Amazon deliver to customers faster. From our latest robotic arms like Sparrow and Cardinal, to our first autonomous mobile robot, Proteus, we’re excited to see the impact our technology is having in Amazon’s operations. We now have over 750,000 robots working collaboratively with our employees, taking on highly repetitive tasks and freeing employees up to better deliver for our customers. With all of these efforts underway, it makes us particularly proud to share that we have just launched a new robotic system in time to help fulfill customer orders for holiday shopping this year. Sequoia is the name of this new technology, and it’s now operating at one of our fulfillment centers in Houston, Texas…Working as a set of integrated robotics systems, Sequoia will dramatically simplify and optimize how we store goods and help employees pick those goods in a safe way. This feat comes thanks to the ingenuity of our technology teams as well as the partnership and regular feedback we get from operations employees about how we can use automation to make our workplace better…Broadening our partnership with Agility Robotics, we will begin testing their bipedal robot, Digit, for use in our operations. Agility is one of the companies Amazon invested in as part of the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund. Digit can move, grasp, and handle items in spaces and corners of warehouses in novel ways”