Amazon continues to tout it progress in fulfillment center robotics. The on-line giant arguably started down this path in 2012, when it acquired mobile robot vendor Kiva Systems for some $770 million dollars.

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The goal now, the company has made clear, is to improve both productivity and safety, the latter of which it hopes to achieve by using robots to replace humans for tasks that are prone to cause injuries.

In September, Amazon used a blog post to communicate about its Pegasus robot, which moves the cases to the shipping area, sending boxes down a chute to be loaded on the right outbound delivery truck. (See A Look at Amazon’s Robot Strategy, with a Focus On Safety.)

In October, Amazon announced a new “Sequoia” robotic tote handling systems it says will dramatically improve both putaway and order picking.

It also announced a protype humanoid robot called Digit, which can pick up and move totes. (See Amazon Blog Announces New Mini-load System for Putaway and Picking, and a Prototype Humanoid Robot it Calls Digit.)

Sequoia integrates multiple robot systems to containerize inbound inventory into totes, bringing together mobile robots, gantry systems, robotic arms, and a newly designed ergonomic associate workstation. It is fundamentally mini-load automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS), with a “goods-to-person” approach to order picking.

Digit is the result of an on-going collaboration with a company Agility Robotics. Amazon says it will soon begin testing Agility’s humanoid robot.

Amazon says that “Digit can move, grasp, and handle items in spaces and corners of warehouses in novel ways,” such as moving a totes with picked items on to a takeaway conveyors.

Now here is November, Amazon has publicly launched via another blog post Titan, a new mobile robot that it says can carry up to 2,500 pounds.

That load capacity makes Titan capable of moving up to two times more weight than Hercules, the most broadly deployed robot within Amazon FCS.

Given that capacity, Amazon says Titan’s first application will be to carry larger, bulkier items like small household appliances or pallets of pet food and gardening equipment.

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Amazon’s blog adds that “We see many possibilities for how we can use Titan going forward, including with containerized storage solutions like Sequoia, where it could transport inventory across our storage floor and bring it directly to employees.”

An Amazon fulfillment center in San Antonio, Texas was the first FC to deploy Titan in its operations. The facility launched in 2013 to process larger, bulkier items and the use of the new Titan technology will help modernize the site, Amazon says, supporting both workplace safety and efficiency.

Amazon notes that Titan integrates several technologies from previous mobile robots, including the battery and charging management solution from Hercules, and the computer vision, obstacle detection, and user control systems from its Xanthus mobile robot. Titan also uses hardware components from the Proteus robot to manage its operating system as it plans, executes, and interfaces with other technologies within the facility.

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