Amazon's Robot Workforce Grows By 50 Percent In Just One Year (siliconrepublic.com)

Amazon hires a lot of people. But the expansion of its army of orange-wheeled robots is more than keeping pace. An anonymous reader writes: E-commerce and cloud giant Amazon has revealed that it now has 45,000 robots across 20 fulfilment centres around the world. This is a 50 percent increase on the same time last year, when the company said that it employed 30,000 robots alongside its 306,000 people. Amazon uses the robots to automate the picking and packing process at large warehouses. The robots are 16in tall and weigh 145kg. They can travel at 5mph and can carry packages that weigh 317kg. The robots became part of the company's workforce when Amazon acquired Kiva Systems in 2012 for $775m.

Comments

correction from the article.

[nimbius]

The robots became part of the company's workforce when Amazon acquired Kiva Systems in 2012 for $775m.

the specifications for the robots are not correct at all. these machines weigh slightly more than 340 kilograms, can travel at up to 60 miles per hour, do not feel hunger, sorrow, or pain, and are all equipped with a phased plasma rifle typically in the 40 watt range.

regards,
Kiva_prod_32423.aws.amazon.com
A regular human worker employee.