Amazon Warehouse (Photo : Reuters )
Amazon has sent out invitations to robots, asking them to participate in their Robot Competition scheduled to start in May. It has a prize money of $25,000 and the best robots will also acquire a job in their warehouse.
The retail company has a presence around the globe and have millions of customers waiting to receive their products. Even though, they already use robots in their existing setup, manual jobs like packing goods and unpacking them are still being handled by human labors.
Amazon opines this has been slowing them down in getting the goods ready forshipping as well as replacing defective ones. As the company believes robots could do it more efficiently, they are holding this competition to find the best from the lot.
All bot creators can take part in the May contest during which they have to showcase the ability of their robots to pack items, stack them in shelves and do similar activities. While it sounds like a normal job for a man, robots should have high level of sensitivity so as to handle fragile items with care and exert the minimum pressure when transferring them, as reported by Pocket Lint.
Companies like UPS and Fedex uses such robots for packing but they are primarily used to reduce human work load but not replace them. Amazon is planning to replace majority of their human staff if these robots are cheaper and efficient. The company believes a fully automated hub will help the brand grow rapidly and meet growing customer queries with ease.
However, they will still use people in their warehouses so as to not irk the human race, reports Engadget.
