Amazon announced plans for a new robot-powered delivery warehouse at its “Delivering the Future” event on Wednesday. The first “Next Generation Fulfillment Center” is located in Shreveport, Louisiana. The company says the 3 million square foot warehouse will span five floors and is the equivalent of 55 football fields.
The site represents the culmination of Amazon's efforts in robotics dating back more than a decade to its acquisition of Kiva in 2012. The retail giant's approach has largely revolved around incorporating robots into existing workflows so as not to disrupt normal operations. The new model appears to bring a more radical greenfield approach to robotics and AI.
Amazon has not yet announced specific numbers for the number of robots it will introduce, only that it will be 10 times more powerful than a standard fulfillment center. However, we do know that the company already has nearly 1 million robotic systems installed in centers across the United States.
Along with Kiva-style autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and inventory robot arms Robin, Cardinal, and Sparrow, the company is deploying Sequoia. We call this a “state-of-the-art multi-level containerized inventory system.” It's faster and safer for employees to store and pick items. In our next-generation facility, Sequoia can store more than 30 million items. ”
This version is five times the size of the original Sequoia inventory system the company introduced in Houston this time last year.
Perhaps the August hiring of Covariant founders Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan will play a pivotal role in bringing AI throughout the system. The Louisiana distribution center will be an important test for how these robots work together. Until recently, this was difficult to solve because communication between hardware-independent platforms and robotic systems was a pipe dream.
Amazon is quick to point out that humans are still involved when it comes to these systems. Once fully operational, the Louisiana location is expected to employ 2,500 people.