Amazon robot "handles millions of diverse products"

Amazon has unveiled a new industrial robotic arm that the company says is capable of handling “millions of diverse products”.

The internet retail giant describes the Sparrow robot as a new intelligent robotic system that streamlines the fulfilment process by moving individual products before they get packaged.

The company’s dedicated teams of roboticists, engineers, software developers and other experts have been developing solutions that have enabled Amazon to automate fundamental capabilities — like how it moves, handles, sorts, identifies and stores products.

A critical part of Amazon’s fulfilment process happens before items are even packaged for shipment to customers. Existing technology moves totes to employees who select inventory to be packaged. Once the items are boxed up, Amazon’s existing robotic arms — like Robin and its recently launched Cardinal — can then redirect packages to various locations in the warehouse before they begin their delivery journey.

Amazon said that, in its focus on robotics, “we knew we had an opportunity to dig deeper into research and development to support individual product handling”.

The world’s largest online retailer has millions of products of all shapes and sizes in its inventory, and it recognised the opportunity to invent new technology that could help handle them at Amazon’s scale.

Amazon said Sparrow “significantly advances item handling in [its] operations” and is the first robotic system in its warehouses that can detect, select and handle individual products in its inventory.

“Sparrow represents a major advancement in the state-of-the-art technology of industrial robotics,” the company added. “Leveraging computer vision and artificial intelligence, Sparrow can recognise and handle millions of items.”

Last year, Amazon employees around the world picked, stowed or packed approximately 5 billion packages — or more than 13 million packages per day. Amazon said robotics technology enables the company to “work smarter, not harder, to operate efficiently and safely”.

It is unlikely that Amazon will sell or supply its robots to other companies.