Amazon asserts the development of a novel warehouse automaton, christened Vulcan, endowed with a haptic sensibility enabling it to perceive tactile attributes of certain objects it manipulates.

The bimanual Vulcan, a robotic system engineered for optimising goods placement within Amazon's warehouse storage compartments, leverages haptic feedback, specifically force sensors, to precisely detect contact with objects; its operation involves the coordinated action of two arms, one dedicated to the intricate rearrangement of items within a compartment and the other, equipped with a camera and suction cup mechanism, designed for retrieval.

Amazon posits that Vulcan, having been trained on empirical data encompassing force and tactile feedback, exhibits a remarkable aptitude for autonomously managing approximately three-quarters of Amazon's inventory, alongside a capacity for progressive self-enhancement. This sophisticated robotic system has been strategically implemented in key logistical centres, namely Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany, where it has, to date, meticulously processed an impressive half a million customer orders.

Vulcan represents merely the most recent iteration within Amazon's burgeoning array of logistical automatons, deployed in the hundreds of thousands to expedite the processing of customer requisitions throughout its extensive network of global distribution centres. Notwithstanding detractors’ contentions that Amazon's substantial outlays in robotics are designed to supplant its human workforce, the corporation adamantly refutes this, maintaining that systems such as Vulcan serve primarily to enhance the safety protocols within its warehousing operations.