article_snippet.sent: Helpful robots are typically shown as mechanical maids or humanoid teachers in sci-fi films.
article_snippet.sent: Some 15,000 robots pick up items ordered by customers in warehouses to save humans walking miles.
article_snippet.sent: The squat orange robots use technology acquired when the company bought robot-maker Kiva Systems in 2012, according to Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president for operations.
article_snippet.sent: The Tracy centre has 1.2 million square feet of space - the equivalent of 28 football fields – which are tended by 1,500 full-time employees and 3,000 Kiva robots, gliding swiftly and quietly around the warehouse.
article_snippet.sent: The robots navigate by scanning coded stickers on the floor, following digital commands that are beamed wirelessly from a central computer.
article_snippet.sent: Each of the orange machines can slide under and then lift a stack of shelves that's four feet (1.2 metres) wide and holds up to 750 lbs (340kg) of merchandise.
article_snippet.sent: The system uses bar codes to track which items are on each shelf, so a robot can fetch the right shelves for each worker as orders come in.
article_snippet.sent: Workers are needed for more complex tasks such as shelving, packing and checking for damaged items and the robots adjust to Workers speed.
article_snippet.sent: A Kiva robot is shown moving goods (left) and another robot unloading them (right), which is placed in a safety cage .
article_snippet.sent: The challenge combines object recognition, pose recognition, grasp planning, compliant manipulation, motion planning, task planning, task execution, and error detection and recovery,' Amazon said.
article_snippet.sent: Participating robots will earn points by locating products on shelves, retrieving Participating robots and putting Participating robots into cardboard boxes ready to be sent to customers.
article_snippet.sent: Points will be deducted for dropped or damaged good and the team that creates the winning robot will win $26,000 (£17,463).