Goodbye to the delivery people.
Imagine opening the door of your house and instead of a human delivery person you find a humanoid robot delivering you an Amazon package, that is one of those futuristic scenes that is already happening in the heart of San Francisco. Amazon began testing humanoid robots that promise to take care of the last stage of package delivery, directly from the van to your door and to speed up the tests the company created an internal obstacle park just for that, simulating the challenges of the real world.
New structures for humanoid robots
The structure was nicknamed humanoid and is located in an Amazon office in San Francisco where the robberies are placed in realistic scenarios. with steps. irregular sidewalks and various obstacles. all to train delivery in real urban environments. These thefts are not generic, they are being developed with a specific focus on what they call the last mile, the most complex and expensive stretch of logistics.
The robots come out of the delivery vans that are electric from the Rivian brand and take the packages to the customers' homes and apartments, for now the tests are being carried out in controlled environments, but Amazon's plan is ambitious, to completely automate door-to-door delivery, eliminating human effort at that stage and that is why I would like to be alive to see it happen, more than 20,000 Rivian vans are already circulating in the United States making deliveries with the forecast of reaching 100,000 before the end of the decade and now some of them could be accompanied by humanoid robots in the real testing phase.
Amazon has already used autonomous robots for some years but always for specific tasks within distribution centers, now with these humanoids the mission is different to face the challenges of the outside world, weather, stairs, terrain irregularities and even pets, Amazon has been integrating generative AI throughout its logistics system, from inventory positioning to detailed maps that guide human delivery people in buildings and condominiums, that same structure is being adapted for humanoid robots.
There's little left to see these robots delivering the package you ordered.
Imagine a robot capable of reading maps, passing obstacles, recalculating routes in real time and even adapting to human behavior, all of this in a dynamic urban environment, that is what is being tested in San Francisco, in addition it is also being incorporated into smart glasses for human delivery drivers, offering augmented reality navigation in real time, but in the future those same systems could be fully integrated into the robots themselves, Amazon is not playing with the future.
A new team within the company from the lab126 division is developing multifunctional robots for warehouses that go far beyond simply transporting packages, they will be able to perform tasks such as unloading trailers, make repairs and operate in difficult-to-access areas, all with complete autonomy, in addition to reducing costs and speeding up deliveries, these technologies also seek to reduce waste and carbon emissions, aligning efficiency with sustainability and the most interesting thing is all of this is happening now while you read this publication.
From robots in distribution centers to robots knocking on your door, Amazon is turning its promises into reality and perhaps very soon human delivery drivers will become an image of the past and you would feel comfortable receiving a package from a machine.
