Let's Tear Down a Kiva Bot! (robohub.org)

Ben Einstein, writes new submitter Robofenix2, has torn down a Kiva bot -- a mobile ground-based warehouse delivery drone, aka Amazon's busiest employee. These robotic systems have revolutionised the warehouse distribution industry helping deliver packages. Ben was able to get his hands on an older generation, end-of-life Kiva bot and cracked open its bright orange shell to expose a brilliant piece of engineering; this post shares the fruits of Kiva's hard work. This 2011 video is also worth viewing, not least to see Kiva's shelf-lifting corkscrew action.

Comments

End of all our jobs!

[bluefoxlucid]

This is how Amazon will end all our jobs! They're able to sell products 40% cheaper than anyone else, which is leaving us with damn near twice as much money in our pockets, which we spend on other stuff, meaning people have to make other stuff, so we have to create all these job-ending jobs where people who aren't plodding around warehouses are doing something else useful!

...wait I think I did that wrong.

Re:End of all our jobs!

[Darinbob]

They have a core group of dedicated fans. They don't care about the cheapest, they care that it's online and that they never leave their chairs. Amazon has been getting people hooked on this with Amazon Prime, so even if some people care about the money they still feel that they must make use of that expenditure and get free shipping rather than head down to the local stores with the local employees.

(I laugh when some of these fans say "but Prime is essentially free because it pays for itself!")