Amazon has launched its newest warehouse robot. According to the company, “Sparrow is the first robotic system in our warehouses that can detect, select, and handle individual products in our inventory.”
The robotic arm uses AI and computer vision to recognize and handle millions of items, Amazon said.
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The company says that, by employing robots in its warehouses, it can conduct operations more efficiently and safely. “Sparrow will take on repetitive tasks, enabling our employees to focus their time and energy on other things, while also advancing safety,” Amazon said.
“At the same time, Sparrow will help us drive efficiency by automating a critical part of our fulfillment process so we can continue to deliver for customers.” It added that, by employing robots, it has been able to create more than 700 new job categories.
Amazon does not have a perfect track record when it comes to warehouse worker conditions, especially when robots are involved.
The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal publication published a report in 2020 indicating that the rate of serious injuries sustained by Amazon employees at automated warehouses was 50 percent higher than at facilities that did not use robots between 2016 and 2019.
According to the report, the use of robots caused Amazon to raise workers’ quotas, requiring them to scan up to 400 items per hour when they were previously required to scan 100.
“The data back up the accounts of Amazon warehouse workers and former safety professionals who say the company has used the robots to ratchet up production quotas to the point that humans can’t keep up without hurting themselves,” the report reads.
In July, it was revealed that the US government was investigating Amazon for alleged unsafe working conditions. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted inspections “related, among other things, to Amazon’s required pace of work for its warehouse employees.”
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Amazon unveiled Sparrow in the midst of a drive by warehouse workers to unionize their workplaces, where robots are taking over some duties. Workers at the JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island voted to unionize in March, making them the first Amazon warehouse to do so.
The election result has been challenged by the company. Workers at an Albany, New York warehouse recently voted against unionization after Amazon launched an anti-union campaign.
