While Amazon still uses a human workforce, it needs to ensure their safety when working around the growing army of robots that navigate its warehouses. The latest safety measure is a new piece of clothing called the Robotic Tech Vest (RTV).
As TechCrunch reports, the RTV looks like a pair of suspenders attached to a utility belt. Inside, there's a number of sensors that will alert any nearby robots to the worker's presence. As the robots already have an obstacle avoidance system in operation, the RTV ensures workers are recognized as an obstacle that needs to be avoided.
Amazon built an electronic vest to improve worker/robot interactions https://t.co/PoeeD136Sk by @bheater pic.twitter.com/e5jhg1MGZp
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) January 18, 2019
By doing this, if a robot breaks down or there's a product spill within a busy robot-only work area, the whole system doesn't need to be shut down before a human can enter. In fact, it improves upon a system Amazon was already using that saw a grid of cells selected as a work area which would then become off-limits to the robots. Now they don't need to plan, they can just walk in as long as the RTV is worn.
The vest allows Amazon to be more efficient when things go wrong while at the same time increasing the safety of workers. That's the theory, anyway, it has yet to be seen how well it works in practice.
So far at least 25 different Amazon locations have started using the RTV. Amazon Robotics VP Brad Porter points out that it's one of many safety systems, which also includes training materials for staff, physical barriers to entry of robot areas, process controls, and on-board systems such as the route finding and obstacle avoidance.
One recent situation where the RTV wouldn't have made any difference is the bear repellent incident. 54 workers were sprayed with bear repellent after an automated robot managed to puncture a nine ounce can of the stuff.
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