How Amazon ignited the robot arms race

Workplaces at Amazon warehouses are often hectic and frantic. Workers run around putting merchandise into boxes and maneuvering hydraulic booms to lift heavy boxes. A swarm of stubby orange robots glides across the floor like sentient hockey pucks, piling up everything from bestselling books to kitchenware that customers have purchased.

These orange robots are Kiva, once a legend in the warehousing industry. Amazon spent $775 million to acquire the parent company of Kiva robots in 2012. This acquisition made Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos the leader in warehouse robotic systems. Bezos then decided to use this type of robot only at Amazon and stopped selling Kiva to warehouse companies and retailers. After the contract ended, they had to find another way to meet consumers' demand for speed. The only problem was that Kiva was almost the only option.

This process took four years, and a startup is ready to replace Kiva with a new robot. Warehousing companies around the world have found warehouse robots that can replace Kiva. Kiva has proven that using robots can work more efficiently than manual labor. The new robots have appeared in the public eye in a different way, partly because the entire industry is still trying, and partly because of patent issues. Some manufacturers focus on how to take goods from the shelves, while others focus on developing touch screens. All companies hope to help retailers save money.

Therefore, these companies are developing and launching their own products as quickly as possible.

Amazon uses a total of 30,000 Kiva robots in warehouses around the world. Dave Clark, Amazon's global vice president, said that the use of Kiva robots has helped Amazon save about 20% of its operating expenses. According to an analysis report by Deutsche Bank, using Kiva robots in a warehouse will save $22 million in warehousing and logistics costs. Using these warehouse robots in 100 or more distribution centers that do not use Kiva will help Amazon save an additional $2.5 billion in expenses.

Karl Siebrecht, CEO of Flexe, a warehouse resource sharing platform known as the Airbnb of the warehouse industry, said: "If you want to be big and strong in the e-commerce field, your warehouse needs to be complex enough." Amazon is the first company to pack a variety of goods in the warehouse into a box and deliver them to the door. Now e-commerce is a rapidly rising part of the retail industry, and more companies are shifting their development strategies towards e-commerce. Siebrecht added: "Automation has become the focus of the development of the entire industry."

Due to the acquisition of Kiva, Amazon is the only company in the industry that uses this technology on a large scale. Global large retailers including Walmart and Macy's are using robots to transform their warehouse systems. They still rely on the old method of a large number of packers to pack the goods and put them on the conveyor belt.

The potential market for new robot manufacturers is huge. Logistics companies with their own warehouses are beginning to design their own automation systems. Even one startup was founded by a former Kiva employee. The race for automation is already on.

Save more money

Modern warehouses are rectangular, 40 feet high, with docks on all sides. Typically, more docks are needed during peak shopping season. Retailers have made some improvements recently: Floors are usually designed to be very flat, making it easier for technicians to manage large numbers of warehouse robots.

While automation has long been a potential threat to workers, there are now more factors that could exacerbate the situation for warehouse workers. According to seasonally adjusted data from the U.S. Department of Labor in May, there are 856,000 warehouse workers in the United States. David Egan, an industry analyst at commercial real estate company CBRE, said the average hourly wage for these workers is $12. As minimum wage standards in states across the United States increase, labor costs will increase. Especially for those located near city centers. Retailers like Amazon have also begun same-day delivery, and demand will be high.

As the trend of more and more American companies relying on automation develops, investors are hoping to hedge against uncertainty by investing in fully automated distribution centers. Robots can help reduce labor costs in the long run and help employers smooth out labor shortages - a problem that large retailers will face at Christmas. Robots can help increase speed, work more accurately, reduce mistakes and improve labor productivity per square foot as the growth of e-commerce drives up rents.

All of this has driven the development of new warehouse automation. "Some companies are doing big projects, and most are trying it out in one area of ​​a warehouse or one warehouse," said Raj Kumar, a partner at consulting firm Kearney. These companies include Walmart, which has begun using robots to deliver clothing. Walmart, which did not respond to emailed comments, has previously experimented with drones to deliver goods, hoping to save more time than its peers in the industry.

“Warehouses are very high-tech places,” said Bruce Welty, co-founder and chairman of Locus Robotics, a robotics company. “Automation is the only way to save money.” The robots his company develops are not simply replacements for human workers.

Amazon took it all

Locus Robotics is a subsidiary of the logistics company Quiet Logistics. Verdi and his partners started the business using Kiva robots. They designed software systems around Kiva robots, increasing the efficiency of Kiva robots' work. Verdi's innovations were used by companies such as Zara, Gilt, and Bonobos. But Amazon came along and bought everything Kiva had.

“I once joked to my board, ‘Guys, if Amazon takes everything, we’re really going to be stuck,’ ” Verdi said. “But I never thought it would happen.” This is unprecedented in the warehousing industry: a large number of warehouses abandoning a particular technology. Usually, a company acquires another company and keeps it that way. But Amazon is different. They want Kiva to work only for them.

Amazon declined to comment.

So in early 2014, Quiet Logistics decided to do its own research and development instead of using other people's technology. Verdi recruited a team. In about a year, they had a prototype. Then Locus Robotics spun off its parent company and received $8 billion in venture capital funding. So far, Locus's products are only available in Quiet Logistics' warehouses. But Locus said it has reached agreements with three large retailers. And it plans to use the product in more warehouses in the next year.

Locus's robot is smaller than Kiva's and has a touch screen. This type of robot can communicate with workers. Each human worker in charge of a specific area retrieves the required goods and hands them to the robot, which then transports the products to the next link. Workers can save time transporting goods within the warehouse. This may be an example of a perfect match between humans and robots.

Fetch Robotics in San Jose has designed a robot that follows workers around and collects products they take from shelves. Harvest Automation in Massachusetts has designed a similar product. There are also many European companies focusing on the initial stage of warehouse automation. But many new systems are focused on the freight link, and many manufacturers are trying to design robots that can autonomously pick up items from shelves. The Toru robot designed by Germany's Magazino can pick up items. A Boston-based company, 6 River Systems, founded by former Kiva employees, is currently designing a completely new product that is still confidential.

“It’s a perfect storm,” Verdi said. “Kiva paved the way for this technology to happen, but we need to continue to research it.”

Fully automatic drone

Amazon has realized this. As other warehouse operators become more efficient, Amazon does not want to fall behind. Amazon is stepping up its research and development of automation in the hope of saving costs and increasing work efficiency.

The research and development work is progressing very smoothly.

“I’m not sure that’s what Amazon wants right now,” said Jason Helfstein, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. “Do you need a fully autonomous vehicle? A semi-autonomous truck?”

In March, Amazon held a secret conference in California, where robotics companies gathered. Attendees discussed issues ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to space exploration.

Speakers were asked not to reveal details, and Amazon declined to comment. In 2014, Bezos shared a rare glimpse into his plans for a new robotics system. He said Amazon's drone fleet was being upgraded. In June, Bezos said Amazon had been working on artificial intelligence for four years, with more than 1,000 employees involved.

"It's hard to guess how big of an impact this will have on society in the next 20 years."

Amazon earlier this year renamed Kiva, and the new Amazon Robotics team is looking for a team leader to develop a "new robotics platform," according to job listings on LinkedIn.

Humanity at risk

As far as the technology has been promising, robots haven’t completely driven out human warehouse workers. The radical change is still about improving efficiency and accuracy, ensuring that the right goods are placed in the right boxes.

Some new systems can remove products from shelves, such as IAM Robotics, a company based in Pittsburgh. Their system uses an unmanned vehicle to drive a cantilevered arm to pick up small items, although this requires workers to be very careful to place the items on the shelf so that the robot can reach them accurately.

About half of a warehouse worker's job is simple, boring work that involves moving goods around the warehouse, a bit like putting items on grocery store shelves. It's an intense job, with employees typically walking more than 12 miles a day in warehouses. As new robots are gradually put into use, especially in warehouses of e-commerce companies with large inventories and complex filling operations, these people will become warehouse workers with the most dangerous jobs.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.