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Amazon Robot Contest May Accelerate Warehouse Automation
moon_unit2 writes Amazon is organizing an event to spur the development of more nimble-fingered product-packing robots. Participating teams will earn points by locating products sitting somewhere on a stack of shelves, retrieving them safely, and then packing them into cardboard shipping boxes. Robots that accidentally crush a cookie or drop a toy will have points deducted. The contest is already driving new research on robot vision and manipulation, and it may offer a way to judge progress made in the past few years in machine intelligence and dexterity. Robots capable of advanced manipulation could eventually take on many simple jobs that are still done by hand.
There's plenty of jobs at stake with this kind of thing... Amazon could easily cut staff if the item picking items could do everything, but even robotic pullers wear out over time. Seems like it's a difference between brute force people and those that fix robotic systems.
Attach a standardized handle to every item. Have the robot look for and grab the handle.
The handle should be such that when grabbed by the robot in correct orientation, it can properly support the full weight of the item (or the box/packaging containing the item) + some amount of additional torque incurred while moving.
The handle can either go out with the item or be removed by the robot for reuse. If it goes out with the item, it needs to be reusable/recyclable or represent minimal additional packaging material.
Many small items already have the standard ____()____ hole for rack display. Make it easily recognizable (contrasting border) and give robots a little finger to grab it.
Many light items in cardboard boxes have standardized cut-flap handles. Give robots a little hand to grab it.
Heavier items in cardboard boxes often have handles. Standardize, give hand.
Think of it as pallets for individual items. When shipping items you don't need to determine how best to pack, handle, move, or store them, let alone program a robot to do so. You just use a forklift and grab the pallet. All of the thinking for the other shit for each individual item is done by the people making the individual item.
I've worked in an Amazon warehouse.
They already have robots drive shelves of product to the pickers, so all they do is stand there and pluck things off shelves all day.
The problems at Amazon aren't the work, it's the artificial conditions imposed by management. ALl workers are treated like thieves, the facility is incredibly cold (like 60F in summer cold, when it's 90F outside) in places, way too hot in others (100F+), there are only cement floors with terrible rubber mats at standing locations, and workers are held WAY too closely to their time punches (i.e. it's a 5 minute walk from your station to the break room, your 15 minute break is now a 5 minute break, too bad, so sad).
It's also one of those workplaces that emphasizes "culture" heavily, aka does daily pep rallies and wastes a ton of time on false morale, instead of trying to have happier workers.
Do you suspect that this is a product of ineptitude, or an exploration of the theory that degradation enhances compliance?
Obligatory: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave
General Motors has tried this a number of times at a variety of different warehouses including the National Parts Distribution Centers in Canada at Woodstock, Edmonton and in the US at the facilities in Ohio and Colorado. Even at the wage that most of the people make between $21-29/hr they're more efficient, have fewer errors, and process the orders more quickly than any automation system did. And they've been running tests and trials of it since the 1980's, and every time a human beats the machine. In the one case where they went with a full automation field trial, the warehouse was losing money. Where as a warehouse like Woodstock makes money hand over fist.
Om, nomnomnom...
Which would be why Amazon is improving the technology. Human workers aren't going to get an better - but robots can be improved. If they aren't good enough right now, invest some money in engineering until they are.