Amazon introduced our first mobile robots to help fulfill customer orders in 2012. These small-but-mighty robots were the predecessors to our current robot drive called Hercules, which continues to improve safety and efficiency in fulfillment centers around the world. Hercules helps employees by traveling around our facilities to retrieve shelves of products and delivering them to employees, who then pick the items customers ordered for shipping.
“One of the things that we’ve been proud of over our 10-year history is the ability to develop robots that work well alongside people,” said Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics. “This starts with Hercules, which reduces walk time in the buildings and makes a better employee experience. It extends to Robin, which helps lift and sort customer orders. Now, we’re also testing Proteus and Cardinal, a new fully autonomous mobile robot and pick-and-place robotic system that pair up on tasks and can work more collaboratively alongside employees. And that’s really important, not just for our employees, but also for our customers. It helps us deliver faster, on time, with better value, and more selection to the customer.”
Hercules is being honored at a new gallery featuring iconic artifacts from innovative companies at Nasdaq’s new headquarters in New York City, and we’re thrilled to be included. Nasdaq created the new gallery space to celebrate the innovation, thinking, and success of companies with well-known brands and products. The space features noteworthy artifacts and stories from about 30 companies, including Hercules to represent Amazon.
Over the last 10 years, Amazon’s mobile drives have continued to evolve, becoming an increasingly important part of our global operations. Below are four cool facts about Hercules.
