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Amazon is launching an ambitious experiment using humanoid robots to automate its warehouses, The Guardian reports.

The company has started to test Digit, a two-legged robot that can grasp and lift items, at facilities this week. So, should we be worried about this growing global robotic rollout in workforces?

Introducing Digit

Digit was developed by Agility Robotics, a startup based in Corvallis, Oregon, and backed by Amazon.

The robot – which can walk forwards, backwards and sideways, and can crouch – is 175cm tall and weighs 65kg. It can carry up to 16kg.

The company has explained in a blog post that Digit will be used to operate 鈥渋n spaces and corners of warehouses in novel ways鈥�

鈥淲e believe that there is a big opportunity to scale a mobile manipulator solution, such as Digit, which can work collaboratively with employees.

鈥淥ur initial use for this technology will be to help employees with tote recycling, a highly repetitive process of picking up and moving empty totes once inventory has been completely picked out of them鈥�, the blog post finished.

And Amazon is not the only company that’s snatched up this newly-developed robotic.

Besides Agility Robotics getting investment from Amazon鈥檚 Industrial Innovation Fund last year, the carmaker Ford was actually the first buyer of Digit robots.

At a separate event on聽Wednesday, Amazon also announced that it is in the process of deploying a robotic system called Sequoia at one of its Houston warehouses in an effort to speed up deliveries.

The system is designed to help identify and store inventory 75% more quickly and reduce the processing time of orders by as much as 25%, Amazon explained.

Concerns Over The Robotic Rollout

 
The drive to integrate robotics across Amazon’s warehouse operations has ignited concerns over the future of its 1.5 million human workforce.

However, Tye Brady, the chief technologist at Amazon Robotics, claimed that – although it will render some jobs redundant – the deployment of robots would create new ones.

Mr Brady announced during a briefing event at an Amazon facility in Seattle that he wants to 鈥渆liminate all the menial, the mundane and the repetitive鈥� tasks inside Amazon鈥檚 business.

He also denied this would lead to job cuts, however, claiming that it 鈥渄oes not鈥� mean Amazon will require fewer staff.

Insisting that people are 鈥渋rreplaceable鈥� in the company鈥檚 operation, Brady pushed back at the suggestion it could one day have a fully automated warehouse.

鈥淭here鈥檚 not any part of me that thinks that would ever be a reality,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople are so central to the fulfilment process; the ability to think at a higher level, the ability to diagnose problems.

鈥淲e will always need people 鈥� I鈥檝e never been around an automated system that works 100% of the time. I don鈥檛 think you have as well.鈥�

Onstage at Wednesday’s event, Mr Brady added: 鈥淐ollaborative robotics involves people. How can we have people be the stars, the spotlight, the centre of the show, when it comes to the jobs that we have to do?

鈥淲hen we do our job really, really well, our robotic systems just kind of blend into the background to become ubiquitous. You don鈥檛 talk about your dishwasher too much in your kitchen. It鈥檚 an amazing robot. It鈥檚 such a great robot that I don鈥檛 even call it a robot.鈥�

Should The Workforce Be Worried?

 
Concerns from the human Amazon workforce over the security of their jobs are not entirely unfounded, as confirmed by Mr Brady himself.

However, it is, of course, important to acknowledge that automation can bring about great challenges as well as great opportunities.

The future relying more on more heavily on robotics is relatively inescapable. Whether we like it or not, developments are taking place in the sector which are sure to be increasingly adopted on a wider scale.

Nonetheless, the most important thing should surely not be to deny the use of robotics in the workforce, but to strive for governments, businesses, and individuals to work together to prepare for the changing job landscape.

By focusing on education, training, and the development of policies that facilitate a seamless adaptation to an ever more automated world, we may find that concerns over the global robotic rollout in workforces are alleviated. Alternatively, perhaps only time will truly tell the full extent of the consequences arising from this growing shift to technological employment.