Amazon achieves the impossible with Vulcan, its new intelligent robot capable of feeling like a human.
Entering an Amazon fulfillment center is like stepping into a small universe , one where every movement and every piece is calculated down to the last detail to create a perfect dance of paper envelopes and cardboard boxes . Everyone is dressed in the company's smile, the iconic upward arrow that serves as the logo of Jeff Bezos's company.
These huge centers, spread across the world, are staffed by hundreds of people to ensure that the product you purchased arrives conveniently at your home with just a click in the shortest possible time. Specifically, Amazon has approximately two million employees worldwide, 28,000 of whom are in Spain .
But this tech giant doesn't just thrive on humans . Being one of the most popular and powerful e-commerce platforms in the world requires being at the forefront of technology to stay ahead of the increasingly fierce competition, especially from Asia . And that's where robotics comes in.
When we think of robots, we often imagine humanoid figures running around on their wheel-like feet or making many movements at once, as if they were Indian goddesses capable of, for example, placing several objects on different shelves .
However, in industrial processes, robotics is generally synonymous with the opposite: mechanical arms that perform precise, controlled, and, as a rule, repetitive movements . Quality of execution counts more than quantity.
Amazon and its warehouses and distribution centers are a great example of this. Last October , 20bits had the opportunity to see firsthand the eight robots the company has developed for its logistics plants in Nashville. This week, Bezos' company introduced us to a new member of the family.
It's called Vulcan and it embodies the next level of robotics : physical artificial intelligence.
What makes Vulcan different?Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and forging, a name that gives him a rugged personality. However, this android is gentle in his tasks for a reason: he's the first Amazon robot with a sense of touch .
This, while it may sound trivial, is quite a groundbreaking milestone. Amazon's director of robotics AI, Aaron Parness, stated at the launch event in Dortmund, Germany, that this is "a major leap forward in robotics, engineering, physical AI... a technology that was unimaginable three years ago ." Now, this breakthrough is "transforming" the company's operations in Europe and North America, assisting employees as they fulfill customer orders .
Vulcan is also its first robot to use video rather than still images to monitor and control movements. “It’s built to work in the real world, a messy reality rather than a carefully constructed movie set or a pristine lab environment.” In the past, Parness continued, when an industrial robot made contact with something unexpected, an emergency stop would be triggered , and the android would “squash that contact, often without knowing it had hit anything.”
This behavior is due to robots' usual lack of sense of touch. But Vulcan can feel .
This technology is deployed in two distinct phases: the one that places the package on the shelves and the one that removes it —'Pick' and 'Stow'. This isn't new in itself, as Vulcan isn't the first Amazon robot that can handle things: "Our Sparrow, Cardinal, and Robin systems use computer vision and suction cups to move individual products or packages. Proteus, Titan, and Hercules lift and transport goods through our fulfillment centers," the company said in a press release.
The difference is that Vulcan can understand when and how it makes contact with an object . This ability is achieved thanks to a lot of technology and is put to use with a creative solution: a kind of gripper on the end of the robotic arm, shaped like a hair straightener , that can precisely capture objects and hold them with just the right amount of force, guided by sophisticated sensors that tell it how much pressure to apply.
Nicolas Hudson, principal engineer at Amazon Robotics and the Vulcan project, explained to a small group of Spanish journalists that gripping force varies depending on the attributes of the object .
“This level of physical intelligence— the ability to see and feel and navigate this messy space with one's hand without damaging any of the surrounding objects—has been nearly impossible until now . And this is the difference between physical intelligence and brain or digital intelligence,” Parness concluded.
In Amazon's fulfillment centers, inventory is stored in fabric-covered modules—called pods—divided into compartments less than a square meter in size, each of which can hold up to 10 items on average. Moving a product in or out of this space has historically been a job reserved for humans , whose dexterity allows them to do this sort of thing naturally. Vulcan is the first robot with that same kind of delicacy.
Just like a person, it can insert objects into these compartments and make room for whatever it's storing , because it knows when it makes contact and how much force it's applying, and can stop before causing any damage. Only instead of opposable thumbs, it uses a robotic gripper powered by force-feedback sensors.
In the opposite process, picking up a product, Vulcan uses an arm carrying a camera and a suction cup . The camera looks into the compartment and selects the item to be grabbed, along with the best place to hold it. While the suction cup grabs it, the camera watches to ensure it only picks up the correct product .
The robot uses advanced computer vision to detect objects, learn their depth and position , and even see through the transparent strips on containers. It can handle a wide range of weights, although it is currently artificially limited to about 2.3 kg for the pick process and about 3.6 kg for the stow process.
Unlike previous robots that used still images, Vulcan processes a continuous video stream as it operates , allowing it to adjust its movements and retry actions if they fail.
Finally, the robot has intelligence: it was trained not only with computer simulations, but using thousands of real-world examples , including physical data that includes tactile and force feedback.
“With these capabilities, Vulcan can currently handle nearly three-quarters of the millions of products we offer and move inventory at very fast speeds,” Amazon reports. It’s also smart enough to identify when it can’t handle a specific item and can ask a human for help. According to data provided by the company, it works at a pace similar to that of a human .
Vulcan began development three years ago in the company's Seattle labs. Although the articulated robotic arms are purchased from a third-party supplier (Universal Robots), Amazon designed the station's overall layout, end-of-arm tooling, and nearly all of the software and controls.
The robot is currently operating in fulfillment centers in Spokane, USA, and Hamburg, Germany , picking and storing inventory in the top and bottom rows of inventory modules.
Thanks to its integration, since the upper rows are more than two meters high, it eliminates the need for people to use a ladder to reach them. It also saves people from having to bend down to reach items in the lower rows.
Meanwhile, Amazon employees are finding new career challenges , Parness said: “As we’ve deployed robots throughout our operations, we’ve created hundreds of new jobs as robotic plant monitors, reliability engineers, and maintenance technicians. One of my favorite things at Amazon is that you don’t need a college degree to have a career in robotics.” He’s referring to the Career Choice training program , which helps employees learn high-tech skills.
The executive concludes by stating that the combination of work between Vulcan and Amazon staff “ is better than either one separately .”
Over the past twelve years, the company has deployed more than 750,000 robots in its logistics centers to handle the most physically demanding parts of the process.
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