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Amazon Picking Challenge

amazonpickingchallenge.org

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Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#11

Post by codecamper »

colechristensen wrote: post #6
MehdiHK wrote: post #2

It is kind of sad to see the animated gif at the bottom of the page. Robots are coming for his job. http://amazonpickingchallenge.org/kivapick2.gif

"The chief aim of their constitution and government is that, whenever public needs permit, all citizens should be free, so far as possible, to withdraw their time and energy from the service of the body, and devote themselves to the freedom and culture of the mind. For that, they think, is the real happiness of life."

hmm... human or context sensitive robot post?

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#12

Post by icebraining »

codecamper wrote: post #9
MehdiHK wrote: post #2

It is kind of sad to see the animated gif at the bottom of the page. Robots are coming for his job. http://amazonpickingchallenge.org/kivapick2.gif

I was about to write the same thing. He's the last guy at the factory. Surrounded by other robots impatiently waiting on this slow human. I used to think Amazon was great when they sold books. Now I'm not so sure. but I suppose it's too late. Once humans are removed, they can drop prices lower than anyone with humans could possibly provide. yikes.

So when Amazon replaced all those cashiers, cleaners and rest of retail personnel with a site they were great, but replacing a few warehouse jobs is sad?

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#13

Post by icebraining »

dsl wrote: post #5

Something that seems really odd is they are working off the false assumption that current picking bins are suitable for the job. It seems every team was effectively competing against the bins, not devising an efficient way to put a subset of objects in storage into a container.

How do you know it's a false assumption and not a tested fact?

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#14

Post by senthilnayagam »

codecamper wrote: post #9
MehdiHK wrote: post #2

It is kind of sad to see the animated gif at the bottom of the page. Robots are coming for his job. http://amazonpickingchallenge.org/kivapick2.gif

I was about to write the same thing. He's the last guy at the factory. Surrounded by other robots impatiently waiting on this slow human. I used to think Amazon was great when they sold books. Now I'm not so sure. but I suppose it's too late. Once humans are removed, they can drop prices lower than anyone with humans could possibly provide. yikes.

increase the wages and ROI for robots will look more attractive

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#15

Post by ragebol »

dsl wrote: post #5

Something that seems really odd is they are working off the false assumption that current picking bins are suitable for the job. It seems every team was effectively competing against the bins, not devising an efficient way to put a subset of objects in storage into a container.

Currently, the human workers work with those bins. Its easier to make the transition from human to robot labor if they work with the same bins, I presume.

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#16

Post by codecamper »

icebraining wrote: post #12
codecamper wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was about to write the same thing. He's the last guy at the factory. Surrounded by other robots impatiently waiting on this slow human. I used to think Amazon was great when they sold books. Now I'm not so sure. but I suppose it's too late. Once humans are removed, they can drop prices lower than anyone with humans could possibly provide. yikes.

So when Amazon replaced all those cashiers, cleaners and rest of retail personnel with a site they were great, but replacing a few warehouse jobs is sad?

you make a good point, but it wasn't so obvious back then what was happening. the world was still dialup.

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#17

Post by ajkjk »

biot wrote: post #8

First prize is $25,000 USD. Doesn't seem worth it given that it appears one must upload their code, eg: https://github.com/amazon-picking-challenge In comparison, Netflix gave away $1,000,000 for a better recommendation algorithm.

It seems worth it if you want 25000$ and are willing to do this work for it, no?

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#18

Post by ragebol »

I saw this competition at RoboCup in Leipzig. So many improvised-looking stuff going on, some with home vacuum cleaners to generate vacuum for suction cups.

Apparently, the winner, Team Delft from the Netherlands, had 0 errors on recognizing the objects. They used some sort of deep neural net for that.

http://www.tudelft.nl/nl/actueel/laatste-nieuws/artikel/deta...

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#19

Post by kuschku »

Iv wrote: post #10
brian-armstrong wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economic and societal forces that require having a job will not, on their own, magically change over upon the arrival of better robots. Without those changes, all you've done is taken away somebody's source of income.

The question is will we iteratively destroy each job until 5% of the current workers still can afford an opulent living while the other 95% are crushed by misery and accusations of inadequacies, or will we, as a society, realize that we can suppress the need for work altogether and try to make the smoothest transition possible? This is not a technical question but a political one. Seeing how most politicians paint un…

And it's interesting how the social democracies seem to have more of a plan on how to proceed than the purely capitalist nations.

Re: Amazon Picking Challenge

#20

Post by brian-armstrong »

Iv wrote: post #10
brian-armstrong wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economic and societal forces that require having a job will not, on their own, magically change over upon the arrival of better robots. Without those changes, all you've done is taken away somebody's source of income.

The question is will we iteratively destroy each job until 5% of the current workers still can afford an opulent living while the other 95% are crushed by misery and accusations of inadequacies, or will we, as a society, realize that we can suppress the need for work altogether and try to make the smoothest transition possible? This is not a technical question but a political one. Seeing how most politicians paint un…

I think it's a question that this election (in the US) is addressing, but only on the periphery. We're more likely to address the symptoms and misattribute them to other forces.
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