Just days after a study revealed that Amazon warehouse employees get injured around 80% more than the staff at rival firms, the e-commerce giant has announced that it has started testing new robots to ensure employee safety. Amazon has named these robots after Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie.
Reducing work pressure on human employees
Bert is an Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR), which is developed to navigate through the facilities of the e-commerce giant. The company aims to build bots that can carry large and heavy items or carts across a site, reducing the strain on human coworkers. Ernie, on the other hand, is a workstation system that removes stuff from robotic shelves and delivers it to employees.
“The innovation with a robot like Ernie is interesting because while it doesn’t make the process go any faster, we’re optimistic, based on our testing, it can make our facilities safer for employees,” said Kevin Keck worldwide director of Advanced Technology at Amazon.
Two more robots in the offing
The new robot duo might soon be joined by another duo of robots namely Scooter and Kermit, which will transport carts across Amazon facilities. Amazon said it will deploy Scooter in at least one facility this year, and Kermit in at least 12 North American sites.
The robots were built amid growing concerns about workers’ safety at Amazon facilities. Recently, a report on safety data suggested that injury rates at the company were almost 80% higher than other firms.
The company has previously been accused of underreporting about the rising injury rates in its warehouses. But now, Amazon has publicly acknowledged the issue.
Jeff Bezos wants to fix Amazon’s image
In April, Jeff Bezos unveiled another system that is developed to improve worker safety, an algorithm that rotates the staff for tasks that require the movement of different body parts.
With such initiatives, the company wants to remove tags such as treating its workers as robots. But these systems will only be helpful if they reduce the work pressure on human employees and not replace them completely.
