Amazon tests new warehouse robots, AI tools for workers

Retail giant invests in technologies to help it ship ever more packages with less human labor

- Sean McLain

Aaron Parness, director of applied science in robotics and AI at Amazon Robotics, speaks during Amazon's "Delivering the Future" presentation on Wednesday.

(AFP)

Artificial intelligence that makes humans more efficient and robots that make them less necessary: That's the future Amazon.com is building in its e-commerce fulfillment business.

The retail giant unveiled a trio of new technologies Wednesday that it is testing or preparing to deploy in its warehouses and delivery vans. They include a robot arm called Blue Jay, designed to sort packages; an artificial-intelligence agent called Eluna, intended to help human managers deploy workers and avoid bottlenecks; and augmented-reality glasses to be worn by delivery drivers in the field.

The announcements are the latest in a yearslong effort by Amazon to automate more warehouse tasks, an effort that began with the company's $775 million acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012. Around three-quarters of Amazon's deliveries are in some way assisted by robots, the company has said.