Amazon Employees Beware: World’s First Warehouse Picker Robot Debuts 

Amazon is leading a robotics race that has transformed the warehouse industry. The online retailer employs hundreds of thousands of employees in its massive warehouse network, which has also invested heavily in robots and other automation technologies, suggesting some of these jobs will be eliminated. 

Amazon warehouse workers must have an idea their jobs be taken over by robots, especially after the online retailer had an embarrassing several months during the virus pandemic, resulting in shipping delays and product shortages, due to a huge demand surge for online items, but also, employees contracted the deadly virus — resulting in some facilities to shut down for sanitation operations. 

If white-collar workers at Amazon haven’t evaluated HAI Robotics, well, we might have found the perfect autonomous warehouse robot that will not just cut down labor costs and increase warehouse storage but will minimize virus spread with the elimination of the warehouse picker (the main responsibility of a picker is to gather products for order fulfillment). This could be very critical ahead of the second coronavirus wave as warehouses need to store more essential items and mitigate virus spread. 

HAI notes in a press release, dated Monday (June 15), that it has debuted the world’s first carton-picking robot. The robot uses 3D visual recognition technology to identify goods without the need for codes, resulting in quicker inventory count through shelf scanning. It uses a telescopic fork to retrieve goods from warehouse shelving units. Here’s what the press release stated: 

“The rising rental cost of warehouses has become a major issue for many companies. Warehouse managers are constantly looking for the most cost and storage-efficient solution. HAIPICK A42D is the world’s first double-deep ACR that optimizes space usage and increases storage density in warehouses. It can reduce the number of aisles by 50% while increasing storage density by 130%. Its telescopic fork can be customized for two rows of double-deep shelving. Its intelligent algorithm can be tailored to meet diverse business models.

“HAIPICK A42N is the world’s first carton-picking ACR. It uses cartons as the handling units rather than only totes. Its 3D visual recognition technology identifies goods without the need of codes, resulting in faster inventory count through shelf scanning. It supports multi-size carton/tote picking and can be applied to multiple business needs. The software platform is tailored to support case-picking and piece-picking. Cartons and totes can be reused to lower costs, the release said. 

This could be the robot Amazon uses to replace human pickers in its vast network of warehouses across the country. The online retailer can’t afford labor disruptions, like it did during the first wave of the pandemic.