In a giant building in northern Italy, an army of robots assemble. It’s not the robopocalypse, it’s an Amazon warehouse.
The tech company has today opened the doors to its €700m (£600m) ‘innovation lab’ in Milan, revealing a fleet of robots that it will use to speed up deliveries and increase efficiency in fulfilment centres in the UK and across Europe.
Amazon has been busy developing new droids, such as the Universal Robotic Labeller (URL), to help its staffers sort and pack products. This will enable the company to save time and reduce the manual labour for employees, while cutting down on waste and energy consumption.
The innovation lab, which will also open to the public as soon as this month, has been five years in the making. Some of the robots developed here have already been deployed in certain UK Amazon fulfilment centres and others will be rolled out over the coming years.
The UK is Amazon’s third largest market, after Germany and the North America.
Global robotics director at Amazon, Stefano La Rovere, said: “We are proud to open the doors of our lab, not only as a hub of innovation for Amazon, but to encourage customers, schools, and start-ups to be inspired and learn about the potential for technologies to create a better and safer future of work.
Stefano La Rovere, Amazon global robotics director
“At Amazon, our commitment to thinking big runs deep – over five years to the end of 2024, we will have invested over €700 million in the deployment of more than 1,000 robotics systems across our European fulfillment center network.
“In addition, the introduction of new technologies over the last ten years has enhanced 50,000 new jobs within our operations in Europe.
“The lab is host to a diverse and international team of engineers and scientists dedicated to finding innovative ways to enhance everyday tasks for our employees, providing a safer workplace while consistently delivering for our customers,” he added.
Other robots include the Automated Guided Cart (AGC), which transports crates around, and the Bag Containerization Matrix Sorter (BCMS), that groups parcels with the same end destination to save space.
Amazon has poured $1bn (£880m) into an industrial innovation fund, its venture capital arm established in 2022, that aims to accelerate investment into startups combining artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. So far it has made 12 investments, including into startups Archetype AI, Instock, and Mantis.
The company has also launched an Innovation Challenge on Thursday, open to startups globally that are focusing on packaging innovation and solutions.
“Building upon our history of developing academic-led challenges, such as the Amazon Robotics Challenge, we’re excited to introduce the Innovation Challenge,” said Franziska Bossart, head of the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund.
“While we previously invited university teams from around the world to develop autonomous robotic systems for warehouse automation tasks, we are now tapping into industry itself by working directly with the roboticists, scientists, and engineers at companies that are already actively working to solve these problems.
“The Challenge offers us another opportunity to support the start-up ecosystem internationally while playing an important role in helping companies learn about Amazon and how their products could address our technologies and logistics needs,” Bossart added.