Amazon has unveiled its first fully autonomous warehouse robot, Proteus.
Multiple foreign media outlets such as The Verge, Engadget, and TechCrunch explained that Proteus was different from existing robots that handled tasks in a separate area within the warehouse.
“Proteus is equipped with advanced safety, recognition, and navigation technologies,” Amazon said on its official blog. In the sense that it performs work and movement on its own, it is possible to process work in the entire space of the warehouse beyond the limited area. “We can run Proteus in a way that enhances simple and safe interactions between advanced technology and humans.”
He also emphasized that “Proteus was designed to improve the safety of warehouse workers,” and strongly denied the long-standing concerns of robots replacing human workers.
TechCrunch, an American online tech media, raised the possibility that Amazon completed Proteus thanks to its acquisition of Colorado self-driving cart company Canvas in 2019.
According to the media, when Amazon acquired Canvas, the media said, “Canvas wants to introduce in-device safety technology with autonomous driving vision system. The device will likely be designed to interact directly with field workers. One day, we can imagine the possibility of being applied to existing systems,” said an industry insider.
Meanwhile, along with Proteus, Amazon also unveiled a robot arm called ‘Cardinal’ for carrying objects. The maximum weight a Cardinal can carry at one time is 50 pounds (about 22.6 kg). After recognizing the label of the object, Cardinal can sort the object in the appropriate place next to the cart. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision, objects can be distinguished.
