At the Amazon Fulfillment Center

[George K]

[Mik]

That's wild.

[George K]

@Mik go through the thread.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1780616487109345767.html

[Aqua Letifer]

An EMP would be a problem.

[Mik]

Any small failure though would cascade throughout the process. It has to happen.

[Horace]

@Mik said in At the Amazon Fulfillment Center:

Any small failure though would cascade throughout the process. It has to happen.

Seems it's intended to be robust against that. Real-time tracking of where each detached, independent shelf is on the floor, regardless of where it was instructed to be or assumed to be. I guess they also update any blocked paths in real time. Then their algo takes the current information from the floor, and instructs the robots based on that.

[Doctor Phibes]

It seems to me that it works pretty well based on how quickly we get stuff delivered, and with a very high degree of accuracy.

When I was a kid, 'please allow 28 days for delivery' was the norm.

[Mik]

@Horace said in At the Amazon Fulfillment Center:

@Mik said in At the Amazon Fulfillment Center:

Any small failure though would cascade throughout the process. It has to happen.

Seems it's intended to be robust against that. Real-time tracking of where each detached, independent shelf is on the floor, regardless of where it was instructed to be or assumed to be. I guess they also update any blocked paths in real time. Then their algo takes the current information from the floor, and instructs the robots based on that.

Likely so. That adaptation alone is remarkable.

[Copper]

Based on looking at the floor, it looks like the stack has 5 options, left/right/forward/backward and stay.

I expect the stack always has a destination, and is looking for a path to get there, one step at a time.

I'd start with that and watch it for a while to see what develops.

After watching for a while I would probably want a way to assign priority and to keep select paths clear, maybe some express lanes or variable speeds.