Amazon has announced the development of Vulcan, a novel warehouse robot capable of tactile sensing for certain items.

The two-armed Vulcan, designed to navigate storage compartments within Amazon's warehouses and handle goods, utilises force sensors to detect contact with objects; one arm rearranges items in a compartment, while the second, fitted with a camera and suction cup, retrieves items.

Amazon states that Vulcan underwent training with tangible data, incorporating force and tactile feedback to handle approximately 75% of Amazon's inventory, and that it possesses the capacity for continuous self-enhancement. The robotic system has been implemented in facilities in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany, where it has fulfilled half a million orders up to the present.

Vulcan represents the newest addition to Amazon's extensive collection of warehouse robots, a fleet numbering in the hundreds of thousands, deployed to process customer orders across their worldwide distribution centres. Despite detractors claiming Amazon's investment in robotics is designed to supplant human labour, Amazon maintains the opposite is true, contending that robots such as Vulcan enhance warehouse safety.