Amazon Is Rolling Out a 'Robotic Tech Vest' to Keep Workers From Getting Hit by Robots

Amazon has begun rolling out a "new worker safety wearable" to over 25 of its locations over the past year, TechCrunch reported on Friday--namely, a "Robotic Tech Vest" that alerts robots to the location of workers within a facility in order to prevent workplace accidents. The vest in question has built-in sensors that allow Amazon robots to detect obstacles (in this case, humans) and manoeuvre around them. "All of our robotic systems employ multiple safety systems ranging from training materials, to physical barriers to entry, to process controls, to on-board," Amazon Robotics VP Brad Porter told TechCrunch. "In the past, associates would mark out the grid of cells where they would be working in order to enable the robotic traffic planner to smartly route around that region. What the vest allows the robots to do is detect the human from farther away and smartly update its travel plan to steer clear without the need for the associate to explicitly mark out those zones."