May 31, 2015Amazon Picking Challenge aimed at improving warehouse robotics

The Amazon Picking Challenge aimed at finding new ways of automating warehouse operations

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One of the biggest events at the recent 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Seattle was the first Amazon Picking Challenge, in which 31 teams from around the world competed for US$26,000 in prizes. The challenge set entrants with the real-world task of building a robot that can do the same job as an Amazon stock picker.

Internet commerce may have revolutionized shopping, but it still relies on armies of people toiling away in warehouses to get the goods out to consumers, with Amazon alone hiring 80,000 temporary warehouse workers over last year's holiday rush. It's an obvious target for automation, so in 212 Amazon spent US$775 million to acquire robotics company Kiva Systems and installed 15,000 warehouse robots.

According to Amazon, the Kiva robotic system sped things up by reversing the job of stock picking. Instead of the worker going to the shelves and picking out items, the shelves came to the workers, who picked and packed the goods. The shelves even helped them by identifying items and showing workers where they go by means of lasers, and even confirmed the item's bar code before packing.

The new system is faster and more efficient, but having humans pick the items off the mobile shelves by hand is still an expensive, tedious task that's an ecommerce bottleneck. This is what inspired the Amazon Picking Challenge, which seeks to find ways to replace the human stock picker with robots.

The Amazon Picking Challenge initiator Peter Wurman

According to Amazon Chief Technology Officer Peter Wurman, who initiated the challenge, the task of picking items off the shelf may seem simple, but it involves all domains of robotics. The robot has to capable of object and pose recognition. It must be able to plan its grasps, adjust manipulations, plan how to move, and be able to execute tasks while noticing and correcting any errors.

This might suggest that the robots would need to be of a new, specialized design, but for the Picking Challenge, Amazon made no such requirement. According to one participant we talked to, the more important factors were sensors and computer modelling, so ICRA 2015 saw all sorts of robots competing, such as the general purpose Baxter and PR2, industrial arms of various sizes, and even special-built frames that move up, down, left or right to position the arm. Even the manipulators used by the various teams ranged from hooks, to hand-like graspers, and vacuum pickups.

Some of the Amazon Picking Challenge task items

The rules of the Picking Challenge were based on a simplified version of the warehouse goods picking task. Each team was provided with a stationary Kiva shelf pod consisting of 12 cubbyholes holding 24 items of various sizes and weights, such as books, cat toys, and cookies. Each team was given a list of 12 items and 20 minutes for the robot to select them and place them in a tote bin correctly without damaging them. Points were scored based on how many items were correctly picked against incorrectly picked, dropped, or broken items.

According to Wurman, the challenge went off as planned, though the participants did run into unexpected problems in the transition from computer models and laboratory tests to a more realistic setting. Other observers told us that the robots were much faster than originally estimated, and that the main problem was with the manipulators having to operate in the confines of the cubby holes and at unanticipated angles.

The RBO team from the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) took out the $20,000 first prize, while Team MIT claimed the $5,000 second prize and Team Grizzly from Dataspeed Inc and Oakland University took out the $1,000 third prize.

亚马逊采摘挑战赛旨在提高仓库自动化

5月31日，2015Amazon采摘挑战赛旨在提高仓库robotics

亚马逊采摘挑战赛旨在寻找在最近的自动化仓库作业

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其中最大的事件的新途径机器人与自动化（ICRA）在西雅图的2015年IEEE国际会议是第亚马逊采摘挑战赛，其中31支来自世界各地的争夺US $ 26,000的奖品。挑战集参赛者以建设一个机器人，可以做同样的工作作为亚马逊选股的现实任务。

互联网电子商务可能已经彻底改变了购物，但它仍然依赖于人的大军在辛苦工作仓库收到货给顾客，亚马逊就有超过去年的节日高峰雇佣80000临时仓库工人。这对于自动化的明显目标，所以在212亚马逊花了US $ 775亿美元收购机器人公司Kiva的系统，并安装了15000仓库的机器人。

据亚马逊，在Kiva的机器人系统加快东西通过反转选股的工作。相反，工人要下架，并挑选出的物品，货架来到工人，谁拿起和包装的货物。货架甚至帮助他们通过识别项目和展示的工人，他们去了激光的手段，甚至在包装前确认该项目的条形码。

新系统更快，更高效，但有人类摘掉移动货架上的物品由专人仍然是一个昂贵，繁琐的任务，这是一个电子商务的瓶颈。这是什么启发亚马逊采摘挑战，其目的是想办法代替人的选股与机器人。

亚马逊采摘挑战引发彼得·沃尔曼

据亚马逊首席技术官彼得·沃尔曼，谁发起的挑战，捡物品下架看似简单的任务，但它涉及到机器人技术的各个领域。该机器人必须能够对象和姿态识别。它必须能够规划其掌握，调整操作，计划如何移动，并且能够执行任务，同时注意和纠正任何错误。

这可能表明，机器人将需要一个新的，专门设计的，但对于拣货挑战，亚马逊做没有这样的规定。据一位参加我们谈到，更重要的因素是传感器和计算机模拟，所以ICRA 2015年看到的各种机器人的竞争，如通用巴克斯特和PR2，工业武器不同大小的，甚至是特殊的内置帧向上，向下，向左或向右定位臂。即使所用的各种团队操纵从挂钩范围，手般的抓取器和真空皮卡。

一些亚马逊采摘挑战任务物品

采摘挑战赛的规则是基于数据仓库的一个简化版本商品采摘任务。每队得到了一个固定的基瓦架子吊舱组成的12 cubbyholes举办24项不同的尺寸和重量，如书籍，猫玩具，以及饼干。每个团队被赋予了12个项目和20分钟列表为机器人选择它们并正确地将它们放在一个手提包箱而不损坏它们。基于有多少项对不正确的采摘被正确采摘点进行评分，删除或破损的物品。

据沃尔曼，挑战去了按计划进行，但参与者却碰上从计算机模型和实验室测试的过渡意想不到的问题，以更逼真的环境。其他观察家告诉我们，机器人均远快于原先估计，这主要的问题是与机械手有工作在小房间孔的范围和意料之外的角度。

柏林技术大学的RBO队（TU柏林）拿出了$ 20,000个一等奖，而麻省理工学院的团队声称$ 5,000二等奖和灰熊队从Dataspeed公司和奥克兰大学拿出$ 1,000个三等奖。