Fulfilling More than Orders: Amazon Deploys Robots for Enhanced Experience
Amazon has announced Sequoia and Digit, two new robotic systems set to elevate customer and employee experience by enhancing operations and improving worker safety.
As shoppers gear up for the coming holidays, Amazon has added two new robotic solutions to its operations: Sequoia and Digit. Amazon now boasts over 750,000 robots operating alongside its workers, including models like its first autonomous robot, Proteus, and its robotic arms, Cardinal and Sparrow. The latest additions, Sequoia and Digit, are expected to speed up delivery time to customers and enhance workplace conditions.
The robotic systems in Sequoia are now part of over 750,000 robots in operation alongside Amazon workers. Image used courtesy of Amazon
Robotic Inventory Management
Sequoia is a robotic containerized storage system that combines mobile robots, robotic arms, gantry systems, and workers. Mobile robots bring totes to a gantry system where totes are either restocked or sent to an employee who collects the inventory inside the tote to fulfill a customer order.
Sequoia is set to reduce the time it takes to fulfill orders by offering fast and accurate inventory management. The newly deployed robotic technology can identify and store inventory received at fulfillment centers 75% faster than Amazon’s current methods. With these speeds, Sequoia promises faster processing times when an order is placed—by up to 25%. This will increase the variety of products that can be shipped same-day or next-day.
Sequoia is currently operating in Amazon’s fulfillment center in Houston, Texas.
The Sequoia robotic system includes an ergonomic workstation designed so workers can operate “between mid-thigh and mid-chest height,” reducing the chance of injury. Image used courtesy of Amazon
An Ergonomic Workstation
In addition to improving the customer experience, Sequoia is designed to improve employees’ experience. Sequoia is expected to reduce the number of workplace accidents and even the risk of possible occurrence by delivering totes with inventory to workers on an ergonomic workstation.
Rather than having to reach up, squat, or bend down, Sequoia’s ergonomic workstation is designed so that workers can operate “between mid-thigh and mid-chest height.” Amazon expects that the addition of the ergonomically-designed workstation will reduce worker injuries by reducing repetitive and bending strains.
Automation Increasing Worker Safety
According to Amazon, its use of robotic systems has dramatically impacted its workplace environment. Amazon's data shows that, in 2022 alone, Amazon sites where robots have been implemented, as compared to non-robotic sites, saw 15% fewer incidents and experienced 18% less downtime due to incidents. The addition of Sequoia is, therefore, set to continue lowering the number of workplace accidents while effectively serving customers.
Amazon is now testing Digit, a multipurpose bipedal robot built by Agility Robotics, to handle tote recycling. Image used courtesy of Amazon
Mobile Manipulator Solution
Growing its collaboration with Agility Robotics, Amazon is also testing Digit, a bipedal mobile manipulator solution, at its robotic R&D facility near Seattle. As a bipedal robot, Digit is specifically designed to operate in human-centric environments and can handle objects to support human labor as it works by grabbing and moving. Digit will first see use assisting Amazon workers in the repetitive task of tote recycling: moving empty totes after inventory has been taken out of them.
Worker-robot Collaboration
As Amazon continues to advance its automated technology, it vows to put employees and customers at the heart of its focus, fulfilling more than just orders. Just as with Amazon’s previously launched robotics systems, Amazon believes that the addition of Sequoia and Digit will continue to shift workers away from highly repetitive and unsafe tasks and open up more skilled roles.
Amazon claims that, alongside its implementation of new robotic systems, it has created “hundreds of thousands of new jobs” over the past decade, including 700 new skilled job categories, a trend it intends to keep growing. The goal: implement robotic and automation systems to improve both customer and employee experience.
