Amazon introduces "Sparrow" robotic arm that can do repetitive warehouse tasks

CNBC ^ | 10 November 2022 | Annie Palmer

[zeestephen]

A video of Sparrow shows the robotic arm picking up a board game, a bottle of vitamins and a set of sheets — all the kinds of items that might flow through one of the company's warehouses — and deftly placing them in crates...Amazon says Sparrow will "take on repetitive tasks," freeing employees up to focus on other things.

[zeestephen]

[monkeyshine]

“freeing themselves of employees” they mean.

[rhinohunter]

freeing employees up to focus on other things.

You mean like umm … searching thru job listings and umm … learning to code?

[Bayard]

Labor innovation is how capitalism generated the industrial revolution.

Robotic arms for this work seems fine by me. Someone gets a job repairing it, cost of labor goes down, and price becomes more competitive.

[voveo]

When I started my own small companies, I always used automation first rather than hiring a person. The employment laws, payroll and taxes always made employing people a massive burden with little benefit to the company.

[cranked]

It’s the future and will only grow.

[T.B. Yoits]

This is decades-old technology. I'll be impressed when one robotic arm can lob a package across the warehouse to another robotic arm that can catch it without damaging it before lobbing it to another robotic arm that's loading the delivery van.

I'll be even more impressed when a robotic arm can replace components on other robotic arms.

[Rurudyne]

Another way for Josh Carter to be packaged.

[Theoria]

[McCarthysGhost]

It’s a brave new world

[Organic Panic]

Try finding someone who wants to polish aluminum at a buffing wheel all day and let me know how to get a hold of them.

[IYAS9YAS]

I'll be even more impressed when a robotic arm can replace components on other robotic arms.

Well, there is this: Heads up! Amazon wins a patent for robotic arms that toss warehouse items

And this from 2019: This Robotic Arm Can Lend a Helping Hand With Repairs

Guess we'll have to see if their respective parties can make them work.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Or this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-VJLz65QhM

[Scrambler Bob]

Democrats ordering 10K of them to ‘process’ ballots.

[Scrambler Bob]

Oh, Theoria, I love that!

[webheart]

All of human history is driven by laziness. When the first hunters thought it was too hard to run after a water buffalo and drag it down and beat it to death with a rock they figured out how to make clubs. When they got tired of having to club it to death, they figured out how to sharpen sticks. After a while they got tired of all the poking they had to do, they figured out how to tie rocks to the end of their sticks. They still had to run so they figured out ways to throw sticks and later to launch them.

Everything we call progress is the result of trying to do less work.

[grey_whiskers]

[Tired of Taxes]

Well, there go the Amazon warehouse jobs now.

[IYAS9YAS]

Or this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RIHnK0_NE

[GreenLanternCorps]

Beat me to it!

So to speak...