Amazon introduces Sparrow—a state-of-the-art robot

The new warehouse robot that can do human jobs, i.e. replace jobs.

Hey Guys,

Robotics is maturing well so far in the 2020s. It’s an often overlooked sector and reality of technology unending pace of progress. It could also have ramifications on the workforce as the labor force participation rate is declining and we’ll soon face a productivity crisis with aging populations.

Are robots part of the answer?

While Amazon’s quit rate in its warehouses gets higher, its robots appear to be getting better!

“If we continue business as usual, Amazon will deplete the available labor supply in the US network by 2024,” the research, first reported by Recode, stated.

So what’s new? It’s the debt of “Sparrow”.

• The bin-moving robots designed by Kiva Systems still form the foundation of Amazon’s warehouse robotics play a decade after it acquired the startup.

• Over the years, the retail giant has broadened the scope of its warehouse ‘bots — hundreds of thousands of them now occupy fulfillment centers across the U.S.

• There’s evidence working with robots stresses robot warehouse workers out even more!

I’m not sure Amazon itself would put it quite that way:

Sparrow is Amazon’s new intelligent robotic system that streamlines the fulfillment process by moving individual products before they get packaged—a major technological advancement to support our employees.

FT was quick to note that it could also replace employees: Sparrow can pick up and sort millions of individual unpackaged products in tasks previously done by employees.