As of this week, Digit became another Amazon employee. This humanoid robot has begun testing at a robotics research and development center south of Seattle. During a demonstration in front of a group of international journalists, Digit walks slowly but decisively towards a yellow box. He stretches his legs and extends both arms towards her. He picks it up with some hooks imitating hands, turns around and walks to a table where he lets it go. To just start with this job, Digit doesn’t seem bad. However, a priori he is a bit slow and clumsy compared to a human.
Amazon has more than 750,000 robots working with its one million employees worldwide. They help move, sort, identify and pack customer orders. The digit is the first whose shape imitates that of a human. Currently, his job at the robotics center involves helping employees with recycling bins, “a very repetitive process,” according to the company.
This Android was developed by the company Agility Robotics. That company’s technology director, Jonathan Hurst, points out: “It moves more like a human than the cliche rigid robot.” “That makes it a more effective robot in a world designed for humans,” he adds. According to Agility Robotics on its website, it measures 175 centimeters, weighs about 65 kilograms and can carry up to 16 kilograms.
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Currently, the movements it can perform are much more limited than those of Boston Dynamics robots, which often make headlines for the way they run, jump and tumble. Digit is able to pick up and place objects of different sizes and weights. In addition, he can walk forward, backward and sideways, turn around, squat, stretch or bend. Its developers assure that it can move on grass, rocks and curbs.
Agility Robotics isn’t the only company developing this type of humanoid robot. Other companies such as Figure AI, 1X, Apptronik and Tesla are also working on increasingly advanced machines of this type. Advances in image processing and machine learning, for example, mean that androids can move precisely in different environments and perform tasks such as grasping objects. The advantages of these bipedal robots, cited by their operators, are that they can move more easily on ramps, stairs and unstable terrain, as well as being able to enter tight spaces and crouch or stretch while working.
“The best robot is collaborative,” said Tye Brady, chief technology officer of Amazon Robotics, this Thursday at an event in Seattle to which EL PAÍS was invited by the e-commerce giant. The expert assures that machines like Digit can help people solve problems: “These repetitive and mundane tasks can be done by a robot, and in fact it does them better.” “It’s a wonderful collaboration between machine and human. “
Problems in warehouses
According to The New York Times in 2021, Amazon has been in the spotlight several times in recent years for “a stressful employment system with constant monitoring of productivity.” A report released the same year by the Center of Strategic Organization indicated high injury rates at Amazon were twice those in the storage sector, and the number of serious injuries in 2020 was 80% higher than the industry average.
The company does not provide information on the number of workers who could be affected by a possible replacement of robots like Digit, since, as they explain, workers typically perform multiple tasks and may change jobs. Brady defends that with the introduction of machines into Amazon’s infrastructure, “in 2022, incident rates in Amazon Robotics facilities were 15% lower than in facilities without robots,” but denies that this could result in the company having less Personnel needed. “We use robot technology that is able to carry out physically demanding tasks and thus increase safety in our operations,” said the expert.
The company argues that the role of humans is also changing as it relies on robots and automation to reduce physical strain on the job, improve ergonomics and increase safety. This explains Emily Vetterick, director of Amazon Robotics, who assures that “an employee can go from working in one position to overseeing the operation of several positions or several robots.” Since introducing robots into its operations, Amazon says it has created more than 700 new types of jobs that did not exist before.
After Digit takes a box off a shelf and places it somewhere else, a person would have to take action, Vetterick explained. Flesh and blood workers also play a fundamental role when things go wrong. At the demo that EL PAÍS took part in, Digit dropped a box on the floor and was unable to pick it up. Shortly afterwards, an Amazon employee put it back in its place.
For Julie Shah, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), “the best way to optimize the performance of a human-robot team is to develop robots that actively work together and help a human Recognize your abilities, limitations and behaviors. The question is not how to mitigate the problem of robots taking people’s jobs, but how to get the best out of people with the technology we have,” he explained.
Although more and more machines are entering the e-commerce giant’s facilities, Brady doesn’t believe that warehouses and distribution centers will be fully automated in the future. “We do not believe it is practical to develop technologies where customers cannot benefit from the skills and processes that people are good at. “The investments we are making in robotics are based on the principle that these systems can work together with workers, and that is how we think about the long term,” he says.
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