Robotic Warehouse

Jon Shea May 12th, 2009

Also, a testimonial of the Kiva system in action at Zappos. The pod lifting mechanism is a screw jack. When lifting or lowering a pod, the robot spins on the floor at same speed as the screw, but in the opposite direction, to keep the pod from rotating. I can’t tell for sure, but I think that the robots are guided primarily by barcode stickers on the floor, and that the lines and circles are just tire marks.

  • DDA

    A fellow employee of mine worked there for a while; he has a small foam version of the robot on his desk. I can ask him about the barcodes and guides if you want.

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