Amazon’s $200 million fulfillment center at the old Cortana Mall site will use a fleet of robots to help more than 1,000 workers manage the 1 million packages that will flow through the facility each day, company officials said Tuesday during a tour of the 3.4 million-square-foot hub.
Known as floor robots, the machines are no more than a few feet tall. They are operated via computer commands and can also follow QR codes that are placed on the floor.
Jessica Breaux can remember shopping at Cortana Mall. Now she works for the conglomerate that is building a 3.4 million-square-foot logistics …
Floor robots will help the workers organize items that are stored in hundreds of “pods” — Amazon’s term for storage shelves made of metal frames and a yellow, plastic-like material that is flexible enough for workers to manipulate as needed. The robots can move the “pods” based on computer commands and QR codes so workers can pull out items to be shipped.
The items will then be moved onto the Cortana facility’s conveyor belts, which stretch thousands of miles long, before being routed to their next destination.
Workers in the facility will wear vests with sensors in them so the robots will know to avoid them if they get too close, Amazon officials said.
As Amazon spokeswoman Divina Mims put it, the convergence of robots, algorithms and humans is “a well-orchestrated ballet.”
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