Warehouse
Amazon began building its robot fleet in 2012, when it bought the robot maker Kiva Systems.
A dated step forward on the record
What the source says
“Amazon originally started building up its robotic capabilities back in 2012 alongside its acquisition of Kiva Systems.”
What it means
Amazon warehouse robots, from Amazon, is at stage 5 of 5 on our ladder: regulator-cleared or mass market. Its stage is set by other milestones on its record; this one adds to the history.
Human help: Our sources report it working without human help.
More on Amazon warehouse robots
- Amazon stopped its Blue Jay project, a many-armed robot for sorting and moving packages, a few months after showing it in October 2025. It said the technology would be reused in other robots.
- Amazon said it had put its one millionth robot to work, in a warehouse in Japan.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that about 75% of Amazon's deliveries worldwide get some help from a robot along the way.
- Amazon showed Vulcan, a robot arm with force sensors that can 'feel' items it touches. It was already at work in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany.
- Amazon announced 'next-generation' warehouses with ten times as many robots as its older sites, alongside human workers. The first opened in Shreveport, Louisiana.
- Amazon said its Sequoia system, which uses several kinds of robots to store and fetch stock, was working at a warehouse in Houston, Texas.