VERCELLI – On the occasion of the annual “Delivering The Future” event, the event in which Amazon takes stock of its investments in technology, a new Innovation Lab was inaugurated inside the Vercelli distribution center, an area of approximately 6 thousand m2 in which the technologies that the e-commerce giant uses in its warehouses are designed, developed and perfected: robotic arms and advanced robots capable of increasing efficiency and making human work less repetitive. With the one in Vercelli, there are three Innovation Labs around the world: one in Seattle, the city where Jeff Bezos founded the company in 1994, and the other in Boston, which employs more than 2 thousand employees.
Opened in 2017, on the initiative of engineer Stefano La Rovere and implemented over the years, the Vercelli hub is today an international center of excellence where scientists and engineers are busy inventing new methods to speed up and make manufacturing processes more efficient and safer. those who work in logistics centers around the world. But also to proceed with the training of personnel, from teams of scientists, engineers and programmers to those specialized in maintenance, allowing them to expand their skills and allowing the new robotic machinery to function properly. «We were born from a corner of a warehouse of 100 thousand square meters and the team was made up of only one person: myself. They trusted me and time has proven us right” explains La Rovere, the director of the Lab who holds the role of Director Global Robotics, Mechatronics & Sustainable Packaging at Amazon. «Our approach towards technology is centered on two key principles: safety and continuous training. We firmly believe that ensuring the safety of our employees and providing them with opportunities to develop new skills is critical to our success. These advances not only improve efficiency, but also contribute to creating safer and more effective workplaces.” We tend to think that robots will replace workers in the future, but La Rovere is keen to reassure us. «At Amazon the introduction of technology has created over 700 new jobs, helping to eliminate repetitive or tiring activities. Specifically, the operators who carried out these activities were not replaced, but were employed in more sophisticated tasks, which did not exist before. A trend that occurs at all levels: from the technicians who control the processes to the engineers and maintenance workers. One fact above all: there are over 50,000 jobs at European level that have benefited from an improvement in terms of simplification of activities and greater safety”.
The robots of the future previewed
By the end of the year, Amazon will have finalized the implementation of more than 1,000 new innovations based on robotics and artificial intelligence across its European network of fulfillment centers. And only in 2024, the company, they explain, plans to introduce 120 new automation technologies, which include, in addition to large machinery, also improvements that allow production processes to be optimized with big data. One of these is called Monitron and is a small sensor developed by AWS (Amazon Web Services), which glued to a conveyor belt collects data on the robots used in warehouses and sends it to the cloud where artificial intelligence analyzes it to intercept any anomalies. «An innovation that is now found in more than 129 warehouses and has allowed Amazon, in 2023 alone, to save 22.5 million euros», declared Alessandra Antonelli, Country manager for Italy of AWS. A continuous cycle innovation process where there is space above all for large-scale machinery. One of these, unveiled for the first time and still in the Alpha phase (the initial prototyping phase), is the very fast Universal Robotic Labeler, a robotic arm capable of labeling packages, even irregularly shaped ones, identifying them in a fraction of a second the type and choosing the most appropriate label size. Among the other innovations shown to us inside the laboratory, some already operational in distribution centers, there is also the Automated Guided Cart (AGC), a transporter robot on wheels that moves under piles of empty containers and transports them to the centers logistics, reducing the need for employees to push or carry heavy loads over long distances. And again, automated packaging technologies capable of creating customized paper bags in a fraction of a second, scanning the smallest items and calculating the amount of paper needed for quick and precise packaging.
Amazon’s strategy
Industrial Innovation FundThe Innovation Lab is part of a broader strategy of the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund (AIIF), the $1 billion fund that supports emerging technology companies through direct investments. The fund has guaranteed a commitment of over 700 million euros over the last 5 years, also financing investments in startups that improve the experience in warehouses and logistics departments. There was also talk of generative artificial intelligence used in robotics and automation, which has always been part of the company’s strategy, as Franziska Bossart, head of the Innovation Fund since 2023, explains to us. «Our interest in generative artificial intelligence lies in create processes capable of improving automation: from perception, to manipulation and control of robots and mechanical arms. In other words, using generative AI to help blend all the pieces of robotics and automation together to make it more effective.” A strategy that will lead Innovation Fund to collaborate with the most important Italian university and research centers of excellence, including the Polytechnic of Milan and Turin, the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa.
The strategic role of Italy in the Amazon ecosystem
The Innovation Lab confirms the strategic role for the development of Amazon’s economic operations, as explained by Mariangela Marseglia, Amazon’s Country Manager for Italy and Spain, with a total investment in our country of over 16.9 billion euros and the creation of over 18,000 permanent jobs. «An achievement that attests not only to the importance of our country for Amazon, but also to the central function it plays in the growth of the company». The Innovation Lab opens to the public In the coming months, the Operations Innovation Lab will open its doors to companies, schools and universities for guided tours, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the robotic technologies of the future. The goal is to become a point of reference for technological innovation, in continuous dialogue with the community.
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2024-04-12 22:32:47