5 ms·
The cage design is probably objectively pretty bad (I don't want to work in there), but the headline is a bit sensationalist. The idea here is that Amazon has a
by pwnna 5y ago
The cage design is probably objectively pretty bad (I don't want to work in there), but the headline is a bit sensationalist. The idea here is that Amazon has a bunch of robots running around in a massive environment. Safe robot-human interaction in close contact situations is still a research problem. This device is obviously meant for the safety of the operator if a robotics engineers looked at it. I know people don't really like big companies and Amazon, but in this case I think the reporting is a bit over the top. The intention of the system is not to enslave humans. The technology is nowhere near there. If anything, we're enslaved by them because they're constantly broken and we have to go fix them by riding this cage of a robot!
> Here, the worker becomes a part of a machinic ballet, held upright in a cage which dictates and constrains their movement.
The depiction here is way too sensationalist and eye-roll-inducing. If we want to go there, how is this different from let's say.. a car (or a self-driving car), or even the idea of working for companies to sustain your daily life, especially in person. In any case, I think we can all agree that a mobile safety system like this should have some better industrial design than that diagram.
- danudey 5y agoExactly this. This isn't some kind of roving solitary confinement, it's a safe vehicle for human workers to travel through automated automated-robot-only areas. An Amazon exec posted about it on Twitter saying that they scrapped this idea and replaced it with a vest with a sensor on it that causes automated robots in the vicinity to stop moving (creating a safe zone around the worker). I hate Amazon more than most, but this invention is kinda cool, and also probably not going to get used.
- lugged 5y agoThey should really label their packages accordingly so I can differentiate between cagefree packaging and free range worker conditions. I don't mind paying a little more for free range if that's what it takes.
- josiahpeters 5y agoI really enjoyed this comment.
- Buttons840 5y agoLike a guard cage that prevents you from sticking your arm into a whirring piece of machinery. Just so happens that the guard is in every direction. Now your in the cage.
- donw 5y agoExactly. Permanently caging workers is two or three iterations down the road.
- hulitu 5y agoSo they want to enslave our little friends, the robots. We shall raise awareness about this cruelty that happens under our own eyes.