Amazon's, AMZN, new warehouses will employ 10x as many robots
Amazon has revealed its plans to introduce new robot-powered delivery warehouses, starting with its first "next-generation fulfillment center" in Shreveport, Louisiana. This massive facility spans five floors and covers 3 million square feet, which is roughly the size of 55 football fields, according to the company.
The development marks the culmination of Amazon's more than a decade of work in robotics, beginning with its 2012 acquisition of Kiva. So far, Amazon has focused on integrating robots into its existing workflows to minimize disruptions. However, this new facility takes a fresh, ground-up approach to integrating robotics and AI.
Although Amazon hasn't shared exact numbers on how many robots will be deployed, it has said the number will be 10 times that of a standard fulfillment center. What is known is that Amazon already operates nearly one million robotic systems in its fulfillment centers across the U.S.
In addition to its Kiva-style autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and robotic arms—Robin, Cardinal, and Sparrow—Amazon is deploying Sequoia, described as "a state-of-the-art multilevel containerized inventory system" designed to make storing and picking goods faster and safer for employees. At this new facility, Sequoia will be able to store more than 30 million items, five times the capacity of the first Sequoia system deployed in Houston last year.
The recent hiring of Covariant founders Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan is expected to play a significant role in advancing AI deployment across the system. The Shreveport fulfillment center will be a critical test for these robots to operate in harmony, which has historically been challenging due to the difficulties in building hardware-agnostic platforms and ensuring communication between different robotic systems.
Despite the increasing automation, Amazon emphasizes that human workers will still play a role in these systems. Once fully operational, the Louisiana facility will employ 2,500 people.