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As I posted in another thread on this topic, the problem of robotics is not just about labor costs as much as space and shipping costs. Robots have always been

by mabbo 4y ago

As I posted in another thread on this topic, the problem of robotics is not just about labor costs as much as space and shipping costs. Robots have always been able to do picking. But they needed items to be carefully laid out, easy to identify as distinct items, easy to grab without disturbing others. Amazon warehouses have incredible item storage density because they don't do that- they look like that one drawer in your kitchen that has every tool imaginable all thrown in there together. A very hard vision problem (which humans are good at) and a very hard manipulation problem (which humans are good at). The goal is to build a robot that can pick as well as a human given that storage system or something approaching the density of it. Storage density matters because Amazon wants any item you order to be as close to you as possible. They need this because shipping costs are the dominant factor, especially with one and two day shipping options. (But it's also about labor costs because they simply can't hire at the price point they want anymore.)

gremlinsinc 4y ago
Couldn't they simply require all goods to come to FBA pre-packaged, so it's all in a box, and boxes could be easier to grab since they're all square, etc? then put all the boxes by size in the warehouse, so robots could specialize?
- mabbo 4y ago
  That increases the volume of each item- sometimes significantly. That impacts storage density, but it isn't the only issue. I know everyone loves to complain when Amazon sends a too-large box for one item, but sometimes you order seven items and get a perfectly packed box. If everything is inside yet another box, that gets really hard to do. Plus, that's a lot of extra cardboard to pay shipping rates for. Plus, lots of vendors (FBA or normal) just wouldn't do it. The labour costs of adding those boxes adds up. Imagine if every pack of 3 pens needed to be individually boxed.

by mabbo 4y ago

gremlinsinc 4y ago

Couldn't they simply require all goods to come to FBA pre-packaged, so it's all in a box, and boxes could be easier to grab since they're all square, etc? then put all the boxes by size in the warehouse, so robots could specialize?

mabbo 4y ago
That increases the volume of each item- sometimes significantly. That impacts storage density, but it isn't the only issue. I know everyone loves to complain when Amazon sends a too-large box for one item, but sometimes you order seven items and get a perfectly packed box. If everything is inside yet another box, that gets really hard to do. Plus, that's a lot of extra cardboard to pay shipping rates for. Plus, lots of vendors (FBA or normal) just wouldn't do it. The labour costs of adding those boxes adds up. Imagine if every pack of 3 pens needed to be individually boxed.