Amazon Robot Challenge Helps Develop Automated Warehouse Workers

Amazon's robotic Picking Challenge this past weekend demonstrated the advancement in deep learning robots and showed how they may come to rule fulfillment warehouses in the future. "The machine studied 3D scans of the stockroom items to help it decide how to manipulate items with its gripper and suction cup," Engadget explained. "That adaptive AI made a big difference, to put it mildly. The arm got a near-flawless score in the stowing half of the event, and was over three times faster at picking objects than last year's champion (100 per hour versus 30)." "The robot needs to be able to handle variety and operate in an unstructured environment," Carlos Hernández Corbato from TU Delft Robotics Institute told TechRepublic.com. "We are really happy that we have been able to develop this successful system."