“If you need to create ad hoc perception models for each of these tasks and achievements, it’s just not a good fit,” said Kapil Katyal, senior manager of applied sciences at Amazon Robotics, in a presentation Ars attended at the Intelligent Robots & Systems conference in Pittsburgh on September 29.
“One of the initiatives we took on our team was to design a base model that could work for any new incarnation of robots that we deploy, and for any perception tasks that we need to perform on them,” Katyal said.
Most robotic arms rely primarily on vision. But Amazon’s new robotic arm, Vulcan, is the first to combine vision with force feedback sensors capable of providing a sensation of touch. This allows the robot to accurately select or put away items in the fabric-covered inventory modules.
“You have to be able to insert something, create space or take something out,” Dresser said. “These are really difficult things to do with today’s traditional non-touch systems, like the vacuum systems that are part of Sparrow.”
Vulcan initially began operating at Amazon fulfillment centers in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany, starting in 2025. It is not yet widely deployed, but Dresser said the company plans to expand the use of this robotic arm in 2027.
The Vulcan robotic arm features force feedback sensors that provide a sense of touch when it selects and arranges objects in large inventory modules.
The Vulcan robotic arm features force feedback sensors that provide a sense of touch when it selects and arranges objects in large inventory modules.
Credit: Amazon
Analyze human impact
Each new robot has benefited Amazon’s human workforce, according to the company. For example, Vulcan focuses on selecting and arranging items located in the top rows of inventory modules that would otherwise require a person to use a stepladder, as well as manipulating items located just above the ground. This allows employees to focus on selecting and putting away items that are within their most comfortable reach.
But investigations by worker rights groups, journalists and the U.S. Congress have painted a less rosy picture of Amazon’s automation campaign over the years. The Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), a coalition of unions headquartered in Washington, D.C., released reports in May 2021 and April 2022 showing higher injury rates in Amazon’s robotic warehouses than in non-robotic warehouses. This analysis draws on injury data reported by companies to the U.S. government from 2017 to 2020.
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