Amazon has deployed over 750,000 robots to its fulfillment centers over the last decade or so, but now there's a new, shall we say, more sensitive addition. The company has announced Vulcan, its first robot with a sense of touch. It's one in a series of new robots introduced today at Amazon's Delivering the Future event in Germany. Vulcan uses force feedback sensors to monitor how much it's pushing or holding on to an object and, ideally, not damage it. "In the past, when industrial robots have unexpected contact, they either emergency stop or smash through that contact. They often don't even know they have hit something because they cannot sense it."

Amazon has developed a new warehouse robot that uses touch to rummage around shelves to find the right product to ship to customers. The robot, called Vulcan, is a meaningful step towards making robots less sausage-fingered compared to human beings. Honing robots' tactile abilities further may allow them to take on more fulfillment and manufacturing work in the years ahead. Aaron Parness, Amazon's director of robotics AI who led the development of Vulcan, explains that touch sensing helps the robot push items around on a shelf and identify what it's after. "When you're trying to stow [or pick] items in one of these pods, you can't really do that task without making contact with the other items," he says.

A fully automated warehouse system is changing the way we shop for groceries. Imagine a grocery store where your entire order is picked, packed and ready for delivery in just five minutes without a single human hand touching your food. This is exactly what's happening inside Ocado's revolutionary Hive, a fully automated warehouse system that's changing the way we shop for groceries. At the core of Ocado's Customer Fulfilment Centres, or CFCs, is The Hive, a massive 3D grid filled with thousands of grocery products. GET SECURITY ALERTS & EXPERT TECH TIPS -- SIGN UP FOR KURT'S THE CYBERGUY REPORT NOW Picture fleets of robots or "bots" zipping around at speeds up to about 9 miles per hour, all coordinated by an AI-powered "air traffic control" system that talks to each bot ten times every second.

Amazon said on Wednesday that it's rolling out new online ordering methods for Prime members, including the ability to bundle standard orders and groceries in one same-day shipment. The company is also adding more combined Amazon / Whole Foods fulfillment centers and trialing a store where robots pack your Amazon orders while you shop for groceries. Customers there can shop "tens of thousands of grocery items" (including fresh ones) alongside regular Amazon orders for things like AirPods or Lego sets. The items will be bundled in one order and arrive together in a user-selected, same-day or overnight delivery window. The company plans to expand the combined same-day model to more areas after it tests and learns from the Phoenix trial.

Feature Fields for Robotic Manipulation (F3RM) enables robots to interpret open-ended text prompts using natural language, helping the machines manipulate unfamiliar objects. The system's 3D feature fields could be helpful in environments that contain thousands of objects, such as warehouses. Imagine you're visiting a friend abroad, and you look inside their fridge to see what would make for a great breakfast. Many of the items initially appear foreign to you, with each one encased in unfamiliar packaging and containers. Despite these visual distinctions, you begin to understand what each one is used for and pick them up as needed.

In a giant warehouse in Reading, Massachusetts, I meet a pair of robots that look like goofy green footstools from the future. Their round eyes and satisfied grins are rendered with light emitting diodes. They sport small lidar sensors like tiny hats that scan nearby objects and people in 3D. Suddenly, one of them plays a chipper little tune, its mouth starts flashing, and its eyes morph into heart shapes. This means, I am told, that the robot is happy.

If you thought folding phones and four-legged robots were futuristic, just wait to see what tech giants have in store for the near future. A patent is a government license that gives the holder exclusive rights to a new invention for a designated period of time. They don't always make it to the production line, but they can indicate what companies are working on. A 2017 Apple patent showed off a hybrid device that resembled a Mac laptop into which users can'dock' an iPhone. The patent describes, 'An electronic accessory device, comprising: an operational component that provides an output to a user; a housing carrying the operational component, the housing having a recess.'

The rapid growth of Amazon's warehouse empire slowed this year as e-commerce demand cooled off. But that hasn't dissuaded the company from advancing automation efforts inside its facilities to improve operational efficiency. Amazon unveiled several new warehouse technologies and provided updates to ongoing projects this year. Many are prototypes that have yet to be deployed at scale. Still, the intent is for them to make an impact in the company's logistics network one day.

ShipHero, a shipping and logistics platform for more than 5,000 eCommerce brands and third-party logistics (3PL) providers, announced that it would implement inVia Robotics' robotic system at two more fulfillment centers. The company has been using inVia's automated picking and replenishment robots at its Jacksonville, Florida location, and its now adding that technology to its Allentown, Pennsylvania and Las Vegas warehouses. ShipHero and inVia have already built a native integration between inVia's warehouse execution system (WES) and ShipHero's warehouse management system (WMS) software, ensuring rapid and seamless deployments in the new facilities. "Over the last two years we've seen demand for 3PL services grow dramatically, which has led to a greater need for technology that can help keep products moving quickly through the order process," Lior Elazary, CEO and co-founder of inVia Robotics, said. "The native integration between our WES and ShipHero's WMS will allow us to very rapidly expand both of our technologies into additional warehouses, bypassing the need for time-consuming custom systems integration. We're excited to expand our AI and automation services across ShipHero's strategic distribution network."

A new'pinch-grasping' robot system unveiled by Amazon shows the machine deftly grabbing and stowing a wide range of items - moving at a rate of 1,000 items per hour, which is far faster than a human worker could. Although humans don't spend much time figuring out how to grasp a bottle from the back of the fridge that might fall and break open, teaching a robot to deal with cluttered spaces, locate a wide range of items and deftly move them is a challenge for the retail giant's robotics division. In a video posted to Amazon's science blog, the robot prototype can be seen using its finger-like pinchers to move and stow 19 items - including small bags, a broom, a spice container and a small box - in 60 seconds. A new'pinch-grasping' robot system unveiled by Amazon shows the machine deftly grabbing and stowing a wide range of items - moving at a rate of 1,000 items per hour, which is far faster than a human worker could In a video posted to Amazon's science blog, the robot prototype can be seen using its finger-like pinchers to move and stow 19 items - including small bags, a broom, a spice container and a small box - in 60 seconds This is an improvement over existing warehouse robotic systems that use vacuum-like suction cups to lift and move items. Some packages, like books which may flop open if only grasped on one side, require other innovations.