The robotic revolution is already here. Traditional stores are increasingly giving way to e-commerce, and to meet growing demand, market giants don't hesitate to automate their warehouses. In 2015 we saw Amazon's small robots at work, but today it's the turn of Chinese company STO Express. Its robots can process at least 200,000 packages daily, automatically seek a charging port when their battery is low, and reduce the number of workers by 70%.
It would be crazy to deny it: more and more jobs that were once done by humans are now in the hands of robots. The change reaches all industries, but its impact is felt most strongly in what the market considers 'lower-skilled' positions. The rise of robots also lowers the cost of their deployment, which in turn attracts more companies, and of course, leaves more people without work. At this point, debates arise such as universal basic income or the robot tax; however, the dynamic is always the same: innovate first, fix problems later. So we see Amazon with its legion of orange robots, and Chinese titan STO Express in the following video:
In its Tianjin warehouse, STO Express has hundreds of robots processing some 200,000 packages a day at minimum (other sources suggest 18,000 per hour). Each robot receives a package from a human distributor (though its workstation seems prepared to receive a robotic arm in the future) whose weight does not exceed five kilograms. The packages are scanned before being moved at a maximum speed of three meters per second, minimizing any error in processing. When the battery reaches critical levels, the robot automatically seeks a charging port, without human intervention.
Still, the most chilling thing is that these robots reduce the presence of workers by 70%. STO Express has already deployed the robots in two other warehouses, and everything indicates it will deepen its automation. At the same time, its competitors cannot afford to fall behind, generating a spiral.
