One area that personally fascinates me is how digital technologies are increasingly shaping the physical spaces around us, such as our homes and workplaces. Amazon Alexa is a great example of this--an on-demand AI assistant that exists in the cloud but that we can access with our voices to control the lighting in our homes, run our sprinklers, and lock our doors. This is the embodiment of our physical environment evolving due to enhancements provided by digital technologies. The natural language processing, machine learning models, speech synthesis, and all of the other complexity is performed in a digital system that sits beyond the walls of your home but is able to connect to that door lock and perform a physical action on your behalf. For an end user, the beauty of Alexa is that they don't have to know how any of this works, which parts are physical or digital; it just makes their lives better.

Amazon is testing a variety of robotic and smart technology solutions designed to create a safer workplace. At its Amazon Robotics and Advanced Technology labs located near Seattle, in Boston, and in Northern Italy, the e-tail giant is working on new technologies to help move totes, carts, and packages through its facilities. In the Seattle-area research and innovation lab, one project in early development involves the use of motion-capture technology to assess the movement of volunteer employees in a lab setting. These employees perform tasks that are common in many Amazon facilities, such as the movement of totes, which carry products through robotic fulfillment centers. Motion-capture software enables Amazon scientists and researchers to more accurately compare data captured in a lab environment to industry standards, rather than other traditional ergonomic modeling tools.

Weeks after a study revealed that Amazon warehouse workers are injured at higher rates than staff at rival firms, the company has revealed it's testing new robots designed to improve employee safety. The e-commerce giant has ingratiatingly named two of the bots after Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie. Bert is an Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) that's built to navigate through Amazon facilities. In the future, the company envisions the bot carrying large and heavy items or carts across a site, reducing the strain on its human coworkers. Ernie, meanwhile, is a workstation system that removes totes from robotic shelves and then deliveries them to employees.

A new report reveals that robots working in Amazon fulfillment centers are leading to more injuries among human employees - although the e-commerce giant claims the technology reduces incidents. Based on internal records from 150 warehouses, serious injuries were 50 percent higher at facilities with robots than those without, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting's news site, Reveal. There were 14,000 serious injuries in 2019 - a spike of nearly 33 percent from 2015, and nearly double the industry average. The overall injury rate for the 150 facilities was also almost double the industry standard, according to Reveal. Amazon insisted its numbers are inflated because it encourages workers to report even minor incidents.

Amazon's first robotics fulfillment center in North Carolina is open for business. Hundreds of employees started work Sept. 2 at the Charlotte facility, which will ship smaller customer orders including books, electronics, household items and toys, according to an Amazon statement. Robots at fulfillment centers can lift heavy items or transport products, Amazon wrote in a blog post. The online retail company plans to have 1,500 full-time employees at the facility near Charlotte Douglas International Airport by the holiday shopping season. The company is still hiring.

Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville, N.J., were sickened on Wednesday after an automated machine punctured a can of bear repellent. The warehouse is seen here in June. Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville, N.J., were sickened on Wednesday after an automated machine punctured a can of bear repellent. The warehouse is seen here in June. Twenty-four workers at an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey were taken to area hospitals after being exposed to bear repellent on Wednesday morning, when a robot punctured a can of the aerosol spray. One woman was reported to have been critically injured in the incident, which caused at least 54 workers to have difficulty breathing, and burning throats and eyes, NJ.com reports.

Amazon.com has long talked about its ambitions for using drones to deliver small parcels to its legions of customers. Now, it appears the e-commerce giant is one step closer to that goal. On Wednesday, the company said that it has made its first autonomous drone delivery -- an order for an Amazon Fire TV streaming device and a bag of popcorn -- to a shopper in the United Kingdom. Jeffrey P. Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, tweeted Wednesday morning that the box was at the customer's home 13 minutes after the order was placed. First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. Check out the video: https://t.co/Xl8HiQMA1S