Når robotter overtager lageret, arbejdere presset til at tilpasse sig

Gæt hvem der vænner sig til at arbejde med robotter i deres hverdag? De samme lagerarbejdere forudsagde engang at miste deres job på grund af mekaniske udskiftninger.

Men at gøre dit arbejde side om side med robotter er ikke let. Ifølge deres producenter, maskinerne skal påtage sig de mest hverdagsagtige og fysisk anstrengende opgaver. I virkeligheden, de skaber også nye former for stress og belastninger i form af skader og uroen ved at arbejde tæt på med mobile halvtons enheder, der styrer sig selv.

"De vejer meget, " sagde Amazon-medarbejder Amanda Taillon under førjul-rushet på et firmalager i Connecticut. I nærheden, en flåde af 6 fod høje roving robothylder lynet rundt bag et kædehegn.

Taillons opgave er at gå ind i et bur og tæmme Amazons lagerrobotter på hjul længe nok til at samle et faldet legetøj op eller afhjælpe en trafikprop. Hun spænder et oplyst brugsbælte på, der fungerer som en superheltes kraftfelt, befaler de nærmeste robotter pludselig at stoppe og de andre til at bremse eller justere deres ruter.

"Når du er derude, og du kan høre dem bevæge sig rundt, men du kan ikke se dem, det er ligesom, 'Hvor skal de komme fra?', sagde hun. Det er lidt nervepirrende i starten.

Taillon siger, at hun har vænnet sig til at arbejde med robotter - noget Amazon og dets rivaler i stigende grad kræver, at lagermedarbejdere gør. Amazon har nu mere end 200, 000 robotkøretøjer, det kalder "drev", der flytter varer gennem sine leverings-opfyldelsescentre rundt om i USA. Det er det dobbelte antal, det havde sidste år og op fra 15, 000 enheder i 2014.

Dens rivaler har lagt mærke til, og mange tilføjer deres egne robotter i et kapløb om at fremskynde produktiviteten og sænke omkostningerne.

Uden disse hurtigt bevægende bælg, robotarme og andre former for lagerautomatisering, detailhandlere siger, at de ikke ville være i stand til at opfylde forbrugernes efterspørgsel efter pakker, der kan lande lige uden for døren dagen efter, at du har bestilt dem online.

Men selvom frygten for, at robotter vil erstatte menneskelige arbejdere, ikke er blevet til noget, der er voksende bekymring for, at det at holde trit med den nyeste kunstig intelligens-teknologi tager en vejafgift på menneskelige arbejderes sundhed, sikkerhed og moral.

Varehuse drevet af robotteknologi og AI-software fører til menneskelig udbrændthed ved at tilføje mere arbejde og øge presset på arbejdere for at fremskynde deres ydeevne, sagde Beth Gutelius, der studerer urban økonomisk udvikling ved University of Illinois i Chicago og har interviewet lageroperatører rundt om i USA.

Det er ikke sådan, at arbejdere ikke bliver trænet i, hvordan man arbejder sikkert med robotter. "Problemet er, at det bliver meget svært at gøre det, når produktivitetsstandarderne er sat så højt, " hun sagde.

Meget af højkonjunkturen inden for lagerrobotik har sine rødder i Amazons køb på 775 millioner dollars af Massachusetts startup Kiva Systems i 2012. Teknikgiganten genmærkede det som Amazon Robotics og omdannede det til et internt laboratorium, der i syv år har designet og bygge Amazons robotarmada.

Amazons Kiva-køb "satte tonen for alle de andre forhandlere til at rejse sig og være opmærksomme, " sagde Jim Liefer, CEO of San Francisco startup Kindred AI, which makes an artificially intelligent robotic arm that grasps and sorts items for retailers such as The Gap.

A rush of venture capital and private sector investment in warehouse robotics spiked to $1.5 billion a year in 2015 and has remained high ever since, said Rian Whitton, a robotics analyst at ABI Research.

Canadian e-commerce company Shopify spent $450 million this fall to buy Massachusetts-based startup 6 River Systems, which makes an autonomous cart nicknamed Chuck that can follow workers around a warehouse. Other mobile robot startups are partnering with delivery giants such as FedEx and DHL or retailers such as Walmart.

Amazon this year bought another warehouse robotics startup, Colorado-based Canvas Technology, which builds wheeled robots guided by computer vision. Such robots would be more fully autonomous than Amazon's current fleet of caged-off vehicles, which have to follow bar codes and previously mapped routes within warehouses.

The tech giant is also still rolling out new models descended from the Kiva line, including the Pegasus, a squarish vehicle with a conveyor belt on top that can be found working the early-morning shift at a warehouse in the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear, Arizona. A crisscrossing fleet of robots carries packaged items across the floor and drops them into chutes based on the zip code of their final destination.

All of this is transforming warehouse work in a way that the head of Amazon Robotics says can "extend human capability" by shifting people to what they are best at:problem-solving, common sense and thinking on their feet.

"The efficiencies we gain from our associates and robotics working together harmoniously—what I like to call a symphony of humans and machines working together—allows us to pass along a lower cost to our customer, " said Tye Brady, Amazon Robotics' chief technologist.

Brady said worker safety remains the top priority and ergonomic design is engineered into the systems at the beginning of the design stage. Gutelius, the University of Illinois researcher, said that the aspiration for symphonic human-machine operations is not always working out in practice.

"It sounds quite lovely, but I rarely hear from a worker's perspective that that's what it feels like, " hun sagde.

Gutelius co-authored a report published this fall that found new warehouse technology could contribute to wage stagnation, higher turnover and poorer quality work experiences because of the way AI software can monitor and micro-manage workers' behaviors.

A recent journalistic investigation of injury rates at Amazon warehouses from The Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal found that robotic warehouses reported more injuries than those without.

Reveal looked at records from 28 Amazon warehouses in 16 states and found that the overall rate of serious injuries was more than double the warehousing industry average. Amazon has countered it's misleading to compare its rate with rivals because of the company's "aggressive stance on recording injuries no matter how big or small."

The Reveal report also found a correlation between robots and safety problems, such as in Tracy, Californien, where the serious injury rate nearly quadrupled in the four years after robots were introduced.

Melonee Wise, CEO of California-based Fetch Robotics, which sells its autonomous robotic carts to retailers and other clients, credits Amazon's Kiva acquisition for propelling innovation in the industry.

But she said that Amazon's system forces workers to do "un-ergonomic moves" such as reaching up high or crouching down to pick out and stow inventory into the shelves-on-wheels.

"They have robots that live in cages, " she said. "Our robots are designed to work safely around people, which is a very large distinction between the two systems."

Amazon hasn't disclosed how its safety record at robot-powered warehouses compares to those without. But company officials remain optimistic that Amazon workers are adapting to the new technology.

At a visit with a reporter earlier in December to the warehouse in North Haven, Connecticut, Brady was explaining the workings of a powerful robotic arm called a "palletizer" when crates it was stacking on a pallet started tumbling over. Unfazed by the temporary malfunction, he watched as an employee disabled the machine, discovered an apparent structural weakness in the pallet, adjusted the stack of crates and let the robot get back to work.

"His ability to problem-solve that was like this, " Brady said, enthusiastically snapping his fingers. "What I love about that is it's humans and machines working together."

© 2019 The Associated Press. Alle rettigheder forbeholdes.