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The Future Has Arrived
One of the barriers to robots taking over in warehouses has been demolished.
The day we were worried about has arrived.
Remember all the pundits telling us that robots were not up to the task of manipulating objects they way that humans can, and as a result automation of much of the manufacturing, logistics, and shelf stocking that humans do will remain at least decades away?
Not so fast:
A Warehouse Robot Learns to Sort Out the Tricky Stuff | Adam Satariano and Cade Metz
As millions of products move through warehouses run by Amazon, Walmart and other retailers, low-wage workers must comb through bin after bin of random stuff — from clothes and shoes to electronic equipment — so that each item can be packaged and sent on its way. Machines had not really been up to the task, until now.
“I’ve worked in the logistics industry for more than 16 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Peter Puchwein, vice president of Knapp, an Austrian company that provides automation technology for warehouses.
Standing nearby at the Obeta warehouse, the California engineers who made the robot snapped pictures with their smartphones. They spent more than two years designing the system at a start-up called…
