Amazon Announces Four New Systems to Ease Ergonomics in Its Warehouses

Amazon builds Proteus to collaborate

Unlike the Kiva units and other automated guided vehicles (AGVs), Proteus is designed to collaborate with people rather than be cordoned off to a robot-only area. The AMR will initially lift and move GoCarts, the wheeled carts for moving packages, to the outbound handling areas of Amazon’s fulfillment and sorting centers.

“From the early days of the Kiva acquisition, our vision was never tied to a binary decision of people or technology,” the company said. “Instead, it was about people and technology working safely and harmoniously together to deliver for our customers.”

“Our vision is to automate GoCart handling throughout the network, which will help reduce the need for people to manually move heavy objects through our facility and instead let them focus on more rewarding work,” said Amazon.