Meet the robots in Amazon fulfillment centers

Last year we spent $386 billion on Amazon stuff — that’s half of all our online spending. And the bigger Amazon gets, the more unwanted attention it gets for its workplace conditions, especially from employees like Jennifer Bates, who testified before a Senate committee:

“My workday feels like a nine-hour intense workout, every day, and they track every move,” she said.

Now Amazon points out that its warehouse workers earn more than twice the national minimum wage, get full medical benefits and a company-tailored 401(k) plan.

But this head must have really hurt: Amazon workers were seriously injured about twice as often as workers in other warehouses last year, according to the government.

“Safety is our top priority with our employees,” said Kevin Keck, Amazon’s director of advanced technology. “So in 2020 we invested more than $1 billion in safety and motion and ergonomics programs and processes. This year we’re making an additional $300 million investment.”

Keck’s team invited “Sunday Morning” correspondent David Pogue to spend a day at the company’s secret technology facility near Seattle. Amazon wants to show clearly that it is working on the security problem.

“I understand not many TV crews came by?” asked Pogue.

“Yeah, no,” Keck said.

“None! So, why is it in your best interest to show the public what you’re working on?”

“Because people can see that we are really innovating and investing in technology to help our employees and their safety and comfort,” he replied.

For starters, how do the injuries happen in the first place? “About 40% of our injuries are musculoskeletal — sprains and strains and things that come from repetitive motions,” said Maeghan Hudon, director of product development at this facility. To study exactly how employees move, her team binds 17 orange transmitters to employees of different shapes and sizes.

Pogue also tried the motion capture devices, with his data displayed on the screen.

“See your movements? The one on the right is your right shoulder and the one on the left is how your back moves,” Hudon said. “So, when you bend, when you twist, when you move back and forth, it’s understanding how you move.”

This experiment has already revealed one way Amazon can reduce injuries simply by adjusting the handle positions on the crates, known as bins, that move Amazon orders through the warehouses, to avoid lifting overhead.

“You don’t want people lifting?” asked Pogue.

“No, it’s actually much safer to keep the weight under your shoulders,” Hudon replied.

Pogue then tried a carrying case with a different handle positioning. “Wouldn’t this one, with these holes, be more convenient because I don’t have to reach all the way across?”

“Not really,” said Hudon. “The sensor on your hand tells us that your left wrist has rotated much further than what is safe for a certain amount of time.”

“Because it’s underhanded rather than exaggerated?”

“That’s right.”

Robots play a big role in Amazon’s (which it calls fulfillment centers) warehouses. Lowrider robots bring stacks of bins to employees, who sort out what you’ve ordered and send it to be packed.

But the human work involves a lot of reaching and bending, which contributes to repetitive movement injuries.

Amazon’s solution: a new robot known as Ernie. (Amazon’s new robots are named after Sesame Street characters.) The robot uses its arms to choose a carrier bag and pull it off the shelf, then transport it directly to Amazon employee Theresa. “Theresa no longer has to get up and reach into a bin to pick up product or bend down to get the product out,” Hudon said.

Pogue asked, “What does Theresa have to do that a robot can’t?”

“Theresa has to distinguish which product to choose. The monitor tells her what she’s looking for, but that container can be full of multiple types of products.”

Now, in most warehouses, safety cages separate robots from humans. But robotics director Kevin Keck showed Pogue some robot prototypes that can share the same space with humans.

One such self-guided cart, or AGC, designed to help move empty bins is called Kermit, which moves as it follows a line on the floor.

Keck said, “So let’s test the security system. I’ll give you the credit for putting the cone in Kermit’s path.’

“Good luck with it, Kermit!” laughed Pogue, placing the obstacle in front of the advancing robot—it stopped.

Once the object is removed, Kemit sees that the path is clear and leaves. Crisis averted!

For heavier loads, Amazon will soon unleash a more substantial self-driving robot called Scooter.

Keck said, “If you imagine going from an airplane to a trailer on the other side of a building, an employee would push that cart. We thought, ‘Hey, we can automate that.'”

But perhaps Keck’s proudest prototype is this little man: Bert. “This is pretty early technology. You’re the first to see it,” Keck said. “Bert will carry packages, bake. If an employee had to take something to the other side of the building, they would say, ‘I need a Bert,’ and a Bert would come and take it to where it needs to go. “

Bert doesn’t need lines on the floor; it uses artificial intelligence and LIDAR (laser pulses) to see the world around it.

Pogue pretended no one was paying attention on his phone and walked right in front of an approaching Bert, who stopped.

Pogue then waved it off. “Hey, nice job! Your thing works!”

“It’s pretty awesome technology!” Keck laughed.

Amazon even says that robots like Bert and Ernie are the most advanced warehouse robots in the world, but not because they get the job done faster. “They are slower than humans,” Keck said. “But they’re a lot safer. So we think that’s a good trade-off.”

Now, to one critic, all these robots in the room seem to be ignoring the elephant in the room — that Amazon’s injury rate is high, not because it doesn’t have enough robots, but because the company sets too fast a pace for its workers.

Amazon told “Sunday Morning”: “We are committed to giving employees the tools they need to be successful, creating time for regular breaks and a comfortable pace, and working directly with anyone who needs extra support to achieve their goals.”

Pogue said, “What I’ve seen here today are robots that stop people from doing more things. And is the ultimate goal of getting rid of people completely?”

“No,” said Keck. “We’re approaching automation and robotics around working with people and helping and benefiting people. Since 2012, when we started deploying robotics widely here at Amazon, we’ve deployed 350,000 robots. In that same time, we’ve deployed more than a million jobs we’ve created and are still hiring.”

Keck said all the investments in warehouse safety are starting to pay off: “We saw in 2020 in the musculoskeletal disorders category, through programs that we had launched, we were down 32%, which is pretty incredible.”

Amazon’s goal is to reduce the number of recorded injuries by 50% by 2025.

“Wow, and you’re bringing that out so we can come back in a few years to see how you did?” asked Pogue.

‘Yes. I hope all the technology I’ve shown you here today contributes to that success.”

“So, June 1, 2025, this place?”

“Let’s do it!”

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Story produced by Alan Golds. Editor: Ed Givnish.