Amazon to Design and Build Humanoid Robots

The company is also creating use cases for leveraging the robots inside of homes, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and other uses.

Amazon is reportedly building a team of eight individuals, which includes its own employees and members of Covariant, to design and build humanoid robots. The team will increase in size over the coming weeks. 

That’s according to Brittain Ladd, a Supply Chain Consultant and former Amazon executive, who, in a LinkedIn post, stated his belief that the US online retail giant entering this market will lower the valuation of Figure and other robot manufacturers. 

Citing unnamed sources, Ladd flagged up use cases for the robots that include loading and unloading trailers, moving pallets, fulfilling orders, and other tasks that occur inside Amazon’s warehouses. The company is also creating use cases for leveraging the robots inside of homes, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and other uses. Incorporating Alexa into the robots will be tested. 

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He added, “The plan is to use simulation to assess different designs. For example, one version of a planned humanoid robot will leverage wheels, while other designs will be bipedal and able to walk. Simulation will take place by early fall if not sooner. It’s possible that one or more design prototypes “can be ready later in the year.”

He observed, “I’m glad Amazon is entering the humanoid robot business. Unlike other companies in the market, it should be able to build robots that legitimately can work in warehouses and in manufacturing plants. Its robots for use in homes, hospitals and other businesses, should also be much more practical than the humanoid robots that have been created.”

There is too much nonsense surrounding this space, Ladd argued in his LinkedIn post.

“Videos of robots pouring lemonade and putting away groceries may look cool, but the robots themselves are virtually useless. Everything you see in the videos has been carefully orchestrated to create the perception that it will only be a matter of a few months or only a year before robots begin to appear everywhere. No they won’t. The hype outweighs the reality. Humanoid robots have a long way to go before they’re truly useful.” 

“The videos are no different than the video of the Nikola Corporation truck that appears to be running on hydrogen when in fact, the truck wasn’t running at all – the truck was pushed down a hill and is coasting in the video. When it comes to humanoid robots, what you see isn’t reality, it’s a production, it’s a marketing ploy. Remember that.”

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