Amazon's new autonomous mobile robot will reduce the workload of warehouse workers

Amazon has announced its first autonomous mobile robot that is aimed to reduce the workload of workers at the warehouses. The autonomous robot has been named Porteus and it moves through the Amazon facilities using advanced safety, perception, and navigation technology developed by Amazon. The robot has been fine tuned to work around people seamlessly. Earlier, Amazon found it a little challenging to use the robots in the same place as the employees but with Proetus, there is no need to be confined to restricted areas.

"Proteus autonomously moves through our facilities using advanced safety, perception, and navigation technology developed by Amazon. The robot was built to be automatically directed to perform its work and move around employees—meaning it has no need to be confined to restricted areas."Amazon stated in a blog post.
The company said that Proetus works in a manner that "augments simple, safe interaction between technology and people—opening up a broader range of possible uses to help our employees—such as the lifting and movement of GoCarts, the non-automated, wheeled transports used to move packages through our facilities" the blog read.

Amazon has also announced another robotic system, which is called Cardinal. Cardinal comes with a robotic arm that can move packages around. Amazon is planning to deploy the robots in the warehouses by the end of next year. The company has stated that Cardinal has made the shipping process faster on Amazon. That is because Cardinal converts batch-based manual work into continuous, automated work. "We're currently testing a prototype of Cardinal for handling packages of up to 50 pounds, and we expect to deploy the technology in fulfillment centers next year," the company said.

Back in 2012, Amazon acquired the robotic company Kiva. Amazon said it was a bold move to acquire Kiva but it made their business faster. The acquisition made Amazon's work safer, simpler, and more productive for employees.