Scout delivery bots from Amazon: cute, friendly and intentionally boring

Sean Scott is almost poetic when he describes his keen interest in sidewalks.

"Every sidewalk is like a snowflake," says Scott, who spoke softly with a friendly smile, with a little excitement in his eyes. "Because the textures are different, the way they are arranged is different, what we see on the sidewalk is different."

Scott, Vice President of Amazon Scout program, is particularly curious about the dull and neglected sidewalk because it is the workspace of its Scout delivery robots. In January, the e-commerce giant introduced these machines, which look like blue coolers on six wheels and can navigate autonomously in suburban environments to deliver parcels to customers' homes. The company is already using them to deliver orders in Snohomish County, Washington State, just north of Amazon's headquarters.

Until now, Amazon was mostly reserved for Scout, but Scott offered a more detailed snapshot of the robot during an interview last week at the re: MARS conference on robotics and robotics. Las Vegas space. Right in front of him, in our conference room, stood one of these robots, off but ready to be used for his next mission.

"The customers really welcomed Amazon Scout," Scott said. "They find the device really cute."

Robots are another effort by Amazon to add more technology and automation to its delivery infrastructure. He already uses hundreds of thousands of robots in its warehouses to store and move product shelves. It was also drones in development send parcels to customers in less than 30 minutes. All this work should help Amazon in its costly attempt to transition its First shipping program from two days to one day, a plan announced in April and already put in place.

Amazon is not alone in its delivery robot work. Google, Workhorse and others are developing drones for delivery, while Postmates and the startup Spatialship work on sidewalk delivery robots.

But as robots are becoming more sophisticated, many people fear that these machines will replace a large number of human workers, such as autonomous trucks and taxis, which take thousands of professional driver jobs. A January study by the Brookings Institution conducted in January found that 25% of jobs in the United States, including food preparation and office administration, were already at high risk of automation. .

It's also unclear how people outside of Snohomish's test area will react if these robots full of cameras parade through the streets.

"History has shown us that we never know how customers will react to anything until they experience it," said badyst Brendan Witcher. at Forrester. "History has also shown us that some people bristle and others will be happy."

It will be up to Amazon, he added, to communicate and be transparent to residents to show them why such robots should be part of their lives.

Scott said that Amazon did not develop Scout to remove the jobs of workers, but to improve and develop the company's delivery infrastructure. "We think this will improve the efficiency of the delivery drivers," he said.

In addition, Amazon executives often mentioned that while the company continued to find new ways to automate tasks, it also continued to hire quickly as customer demand increased.

Amazon Friday lost its contract with FedEx Express, a sign of increasing friction with its shipping partners, while Amazon continues to develop its own delivery infrastructure. If UPS or the US postal service finds itself facing such upheavals, Amazon would need all possible help – humans and robots – to be able to deliver their parcels on time.

Teach Scout to Roll

Today, scouts are loaded into vans and brought to the neighborhoods where they deliver. To make sure the scouts are working properly, each robot is badigned an Amazon worker, whom Scott calls "ambbadadors" – who accompanies the robots during their deliveries and removes the packs stored in their belly. The Scout program started with six robots, but Scott did not specify how many robots are currently being used, when and where the program will be expanded.

The idea is to eventually tie the Scouts to delivery drivers and let the robots run on their own, but the details are still being worked on, Scott said.

For example, there is no way to get a Scout out of a package without anyone approaching him, opening his lid and removing his payload. Scott said one idea might be to let the scouts wait a while for the clients to return home.

In addition, the Scout has magnetic closures in its lid to keep its top closed while driving and to protect its packages against theft. It is possible that a resident uses the Amazon app in the future to unlock the bot and get his package once it returns home.

To train Scouts in navigation in Snohomish, Amazon has created bike trailers with the same camera matrices as robots. Cyclists circulated through neighborhoods capturing all the details of sidewalks, streets, gutters and even weeds.

Then, Amazon created virtual worlds almost identical to the streets on which Scouts circulated and formed robots again and again using these digital doubles. So, when Scouts would be ready to enter the real world, they would be much more prepared for what they would live.

As Scouts learn more about the world, they will be trained less information to understand how to move in new neighborhoods, which will allow Amazon to expand more rapidly Scouts, said Scott.

To know where to go, scouts are equipped with GPS, radar and cameras facing forward and backward. Scott showed me a video of a Scout in action on the street, slowly rolling on the sidewalk and stopping cautiously when a neighborhood cat jumped in front.

The current version is under development for suburban deliveries, but it is possible that future Scout robots will work in a city or rural area.

Although Scouts remain a curiosity now, Scott said the robots were deliberately designed to look cute, friendly and above all unpretentious. Yes, the robots have a bright blue color with the Prime logo on each side, as well as flashing lights, which are essential when Scouts cross the street. Plus, when you open the lid of a scout, this one is painted in bright orange and orange orange, providing a nice contrast with the blue exterior and giving the impression of opening a gift.

Otherwise, Scouts have been built to weaken and integrate perfectly into a suburban setting.

"It's exactly what we want," Scott said. "It's designed for boring."

First published at 5 am
Updated at 09:50 PT: Add more details about the scout.