A new generation of AI-powered robots is taking over warehouses

This is what the latest robotics companies like Covariant and Osaro specialize in, a technology that was not commercially viable until the end of 2019. Right now these robots are skilled at simple handling tasks, such as picking up objects and putting them into boxes. , but both startups are already working with customers on more complicated sequences of movement, including car bags, to allow robots to work with rough, weak or translucent materials. Within a few years, any task that required you to perform your hands beforehand could be partially or fully automated.

Some companies have already started designing their warehouses to make better use of these new capabilities. Knapp, for example, is changing the design of the floor and adapting the way the goods are handled (robot or human) to better handle different products. For objects that still interfere with robots, such as a clean bag of marbles or delicate pottery, a central routing algorithm would send them to a station with human pickers. More common items, such as household items and school supplies, would go to a station with robots.

Derik Pridmore, co-founder and CEO of Osaro, predicts that fully automated warehouses could be introduced in industries like fashion within two years, as clothing is relatively easy for robots to handle.

This does not mean that all warehouses will be automated soon. There are millions around the world, says Michael Chui, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, which studies the impact of information technology on the economy. “The adaptation of all these facilities cannot happen overnight,” he says.

However, the recent push for automation raises doubts about the impact it has on jobs and employees.

Previous waves of automation have provided more data to researchers to find out what to expect. Final examination they first examined the impact that automation had on the company level, that companies that took robots to their industry earlier than others were more competitive and growing, which led to the hiring of more employees. “Any job loss is created by companies that haven’t taken the robot by storm,” says Lynn Wu Wharton, the paper’s author. “They lose competitiveness and then lay off workers.”

But as Amazon and FedEx employees have already seen, jobs for humans will be different. Roles such as packing boxes and bags will be relocated, and new ones will emerge, some with a direct link to maintaining and supervising robots, others with side effects of meeting more demand, which would require larger logistics and delivery operations. In other words, medium-skilled work will disappear in favor of low-skilled and high-level work, Wu says, “We’re breaking down the career ladder and leaving the middle ground vacant.”

Experts say that instead of trying to stop the trend towards automation, it is better to ease the transition by focusing on retraining employees and creating new career growth opportunities. “Due to aging, some countries in the world are already reducing their workforce size,” says Chui. “Half of our economic growth has been achieved by more people working in the last 50 years, and that will disappear. So it is a real must to increase productivity and these technologies can help.

“We also need to make sure that employees share the benefits.”