61–70 of 298 posts
Warehouses is definitely not where I expected robots with retractable blades to first appear. The demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWXco05eK28
Isn't that a pretty tiny number?
I assume a human probably does 1 every 5 seconds (it's much easier to put an item on a shelf than to take it off).
So that's about 5 months human output.
It's interesting how Amazon is embedding robots in human-designed warehouses whereas Ocado has humans overseeing a robotic warehouse. The later is a much easier problem.
Not sure why Ocado gets so much credit for the latter though, they just copied AutoStore which has a fascinating history! They purchased an AutoStore, then reverse engineered it, made a few changes, and claimed it as their own invention.
A system that works well with 15 robots will often fall apart if scaled up to 150 or 1500 robots. Reliability, planning algorithm complexity, radio performance, all sorts of issues start to come up.
That’s why Hatteland patented the autostore tech in ~1995 and by the time the patents expired they only supported ~100 robots.
It’s not always easy to appreciate, because everyone publicises when they install a new automation system, but nobody publicises it if they scrap it 18 months later. Being discreet about it is better for the share price.
Of course there’s still a perfectly good market for less scalable automation; grocery just has crazy financials.
Warehouses is definitely not where I expected robots with retractable blades to first appear. The demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWXco05eK28
How does the robot assess whether there is enough space available in each bin?
From the article:
> “When you’re a person doing this task, you’ve got a buffer of 20 or 30 items, and you’re looking for an opportunity to fit those items into different bins, and having to remember which item might go into which space. But the robot knows all of the properties of all of our items at once, and we can also look at all of the bins at the same time along with the bins in the next couple of pods that are coming up. So we can do this optimization over the whole set of information in 100 milliseconds.”
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What skilled worker? This is a low skill worker they are replacing.
For now. Wait until LLMs get better and destroy the ability for junior developers to get their foot in the door.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is why, in the end, only robots will remain. They are inexhaustible and strictly meticulous in all circumstances.
Robots aren't inexhaustible. They break down a lot and are far more expensive to repair and maintain than a human being.
Fillpy the robot will not:
- need vacations
- go on maternity leave
- call in sick
- steal from work
- be rude to customers
- go to work hungover from drinking
- come in high/stoned at work
- sue you for X,Y,Z
- sexually harass colleagues
- go on strike
- start a union
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It takes hundreds of millions to build a warehouse. Amazon has tons of them. Retrofitting things is capital intensive.
Humans are cheaper than robots too...
Robots also get cheaper over time because we learn. You can buy many parts in bulk including computer libraries to control them. You can find many people who know best practices who will not make some of the early mistakes that cost money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon warehouse base pay is ~$21-22/hr due to labor supply shortages. https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+raise+wages+warehouse
That's about 60k a year for the employer, I think? That probably doesn't even cover the BOM cost of this robot installation.
Why do we think this is a good thing without socialism? I am not a fan of socialism, but with the level of automation we are reaching, do we really want to be ruled by our incel tech-bro overlords, living out of UBI, in a permanently bi-strated society without even the illusion of social mobility and democracy we have nowadays?
What does "a genuine sense of touch" actually mean? Surely there have been robots in the past that can detect how much force they are apply to an object? Was that a "fake sense of touch"?
I'd assume measuring the force exerted at the contact point rather than the motor current.