Amazon to Increase Robots from 1,400 to 10,000 by End of 2014; Day in the Life of a Robot

Have a job moving stuff or filling orders in a warehouse? If so, your job is in jeopardy.

Please consider Bezos expects 10,000 robots at Amazon warehouses by 2015

Amazon.com plans to aggressively expand its use of robots at it warehouses in 2014, rolling out 10,000 of them by the end of 2014.

Chief Executive Jeff Bezos told investors at Amazon’s annual shareholders meeting Wednesday that the company has about 1,000 robots picking products today.

The robots are made by Kiva Systems, a company Amazon purchased two years ago for $775 million in a bid to further automate its warehouses. Last October, the company said it had deployed 1,382 robots in three warehouses.

Day in the Life of a Robot

In the following video, Kiva Systems founder and CEO Mick Mountz narrates a play-by-play video of how Kiva robots automate a warehouse environment. The video is actually from 2011.



Link if video does not play: A Day in the Life of a Kiva Robot. The video is quite interesting. Inquiring minds will want to give it a play.

Considering what money-losing IPOs are going for these days, Jeff Bezos appears to have gotten a bargain for $775 million.

Here's the question of the day: What took Bezos so long for mass deployment?

Whatever the answer, Bezos clearly believes these robots are ready for full scale deployment. Can other online competitors be far behind?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com