![]() ![]() However, it’s important to note that this patent doesn’t mean AGVs will be on the market in two years or even in 10 years. The drawings in the patent look similar to Amazon’s Scout robot and Starship Technologies delivery vehicles. Customers could retrieve them with a secure code, the way they currently open Amazon Hub lockers.Īmazon even says AGVs could incorporate some elements of Amazon Key technology, opening garage doors or entering homes on their own. The AGV would lock parcels inside itself, in a compartment that could be a small cooler or another special type of compartment depending on need. How Will the Amazon Robot Work?Īmazon’s patent describes a rolling robot that uses sensors and computing hardware to communicate with a remote computing system, which organizes orders and gives the robot basic commands. A systemic adoption of AGVs would eliminate human inefficiency almost entirely - AGVs could pick up parcels at any time of day or night, for example. A single driver could leave a warehouse and deliver packages to a single location, where a team of stay-at-home Amazon robots could meet it and pick up parcels. Amazon Key allows couriers to deliver parcels along efficient routes, rather than waiting for customers to be home and doubling back when they aren’t.ĪGVs are a further step in this direction. Hub by Amazon was designed so that couriers could drop packages for a whole apartment building in individual lockers in the lobby, or for a whole neighborhood at a shipping-container sized group of lockers. Translation: Amazon isn’t delivering as much from its warehouses as it would like to at the speed it would like to – so why not recruit the help of autonomous mobile robots to make operations more efficient?Īmazon has already implemented some technology solutions to the problem of last-mile inefficiency. “Over time,” Amazon wrote in its patent documents, “an increasing frequency and volume of delivery of items from e-commerce and mail-order companies has resulted in an increased need for faster and more efficient delivery methods.” “They never stop thinking of ways to get stuff into your house.” Why is Amazon Creating this Robot? “Gotta give it to Amazon,” The Spoon’s Michael Wolf wrote. Unlike Amazon’s Scout, this Amazon robot would primarily be responsible for retrieving packages on customers’ behalf, not delivering them for Amazon. Multiple AGVs could meet Amazon’s delivery truck at the same place, with the truck handing out one package after another. The automated delivery robot would be able to receive messages from Amazon delivery vehicles and meet them at specified times and places. The Spoon found that Amazon had been issued a patent for an “autonomous ground vehicle,” or AGV, “which is basically a robot that sits in waiting at your home and goes and picks up your latest deliveries from a centralized pickup center.”ĪGVs could be owned by individuals or serve a group of users, like neighbors in an apartment building or homeowners association, the patent read. The latest Amazon initiative to catch our eyes was reported by The Spoon, a website reporting on food technology, in late February. Many Amazon users have given the company access to their cars or garages so that couriers can deliver packages there. Amazon is building its own shipping fleet, producing award-winning TV shows, operating thousands of warehouses, offering cloud storage services, and marketing Alexa, one of the leading voice-controlled systems on the market. The Seattle-based company’s reach and ambitions stretch far beyond e-commerce. , or about two in three American households. Amazon Prime has an estimated 85 million subscribers in the U.S. ![]() Its name is shorthand for buying just about anything online. The enormous company is now a necessity in millions of people’s lives around the world. Remember when Amazon only sold books? It’s not easy, considering how much Amazon has grown in the last two decades.
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