Amazon developing its very own robot delivery system

E-commerce largely depends on the versatility of the supply chain infrastructure. Primary nodes in the supply chain send out the products ordered by customers, which is followed by secondary hubs taking care of what is called last mile delivery. Amazon, the American e-commerce behemoth is now testing automated delivery robots to complete the last leg of delivery. Last mile delivery is the stage where the product actually arrives at the physical address of the customer. It was known for a while that Amazon has its own robotics division, but people were only aware of the warehouse automation and logistics part of Amazon’s robotics efforts.

The delivery robot is called Scout and it is about the size of a portable cooler and moves around on six wheels. Moreover, it is electric and cruises at the same speed as that of an average person walking. The delivery systems is currently only in its experimental stages and the robots are being tested with delivering products to customers only in Snohomish County in Washington. However, these the robots were accompanies by Amazon employees just to make sure things didn’t go awry.

This could very well be another stage in the e-commerce industry, where human couriers are replaced robots. The Scout was developed by Amazon with an aim to better serve its customers. Amazon has heavily invested in the robotics arena in order to optimize its warehouse operations. It could only be a matter of time before the e-commerce behemoth implements these robots across the globe.