Amazon shows how warehouse robots work in new distribution center

Amazon has shown to the American press how the robots developed by Kiva function in a brand new warehouse. The warehouse robots drive shelving units to Amazon employees to fill them or unpack products. This saves employees a lot of time.

Kiva Systems was acquired by Amazon in 2012 after the e-commerce giant successfully deployed its warehouse robots in the ordering process. Since then, Amazon has started to increase the use of robots in its distribution centers, but the company has so far released few details about how exactly the robots did their job. With a tour for the likes of Wired and AP in a brand new warehouse near San Francisco, Amazon is providing more insight into how the Kiva bots function.

The group wants to use the robots to save its employees a lot of walking through the large warehouses: the 145 kilo robots lift racks that can weigh up to 340 kilos and drive them to an employee. This person can place new products on the shelves or, on the contrary, take orders from the shelving unit.

According to Amazon, a human is still needed to select a product, because it must be checked whether it is of good quality before it is sent to a customer. But because employees no longer walk long distances through the warehouse, processing an order is on average twice as fast, which means that Amazon can also shorten the delivery time. In addition, the costs for storing products are reduced, because the shelving units can be placed closer to each other. Amazon claims to realize a cost saving of 20 percent.

The warehouse shown by Amazon employs 3,000 Kiva robots and approximately 4,000 employees at peak times around Christmas. In addition, Amazon has approximately 15,000 warehouse robots ‘in service’ in its fifty warehouses in the US.

Amazon has been experimenting for years with optimizing its ordering processes. It also has futuristic ambitions, such as developing a drone that should be able to deliver packages to consumers.