Amazon has quietly ended its Bluejay warehouse robot project that it unveiled in October last year after three months, Business Insider reported on Monday.
According to an internal source, Bluejay was developed as a multi-robot arm system operated at delivery warehouses, but was halted due to high costs, manufacturing complexity and implementation issues.
Amazon spokesperson Terrance Clark (테런스 클락) said Bluejay’s core technology will be used in other robot projects in the future. "Experiments to improve the customer experience and boost employee safety and efficiency will continue," he said.
The Bluejay development team has been reassigned to other robot projects, and some technologies applied to Bluejay are set to be integrated into a new system called Flex Cell.
Amazon has recently been pushing to shift from its Local Vending Machine (LVM) system to a more flexible Orbital system. Orbital has a modular design and is being developed so it can be installed in small same-day delivery warehouses or in back areas of Whole Foods stores, instead of at large logistics centres.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr