In April, Amazon launched a venture investment program called the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund investing $1 billion into other companies that are building technologies to improve fulfillment operations, logistics, and the supply chain. The e-commerce giant said the fund is part of its continued commitment to foster innovation and enhance the employee and customer experience. Cheddar Connected takes a deeper look into the robotics future, concerns over issues like job losses, and an ever-growing range of products and services. 

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Amazon's $1B Industrial Innovation Fund Signals Future of Robot-Powered Business

Welcome back now whether we like it or not, robots are the future. But naturally people have concerns for example, because the world with lots of robots mean fewer jobs for you know, you and me, you know humans. Well, there are different kinds of robots and some popular ones are the ones used for many factoring which are known as industrial robots. And there's one tech giant making a big investment into other companies developing these new and innovative technologies in hopes to transform and improve how its own warehouses operate. Okay, so back in april, amazon launched a venture investment program called the Industrial Innovation Fund, where Amazon is investing one billion bucks into other companies that are building technologies to improve fulfillment operations, logistics and the supply chain. Now Amazon says that the fund is part of its continued commitment to foster innovation, enhance the employee and customer experience. Now they added that as customers increasingly shop online, look for even faster delivery. I know I do, amazon will work with other companies focused on making things more streamlined. So let's talk about the fun. Well, the funds first round of investment is going to companies that are focused on new technologies that will increase the delivery speed and improve the experience of warehouses and logistics employees. Well, one such company called module is doing this and doing it by developing wearable safety technology. Alright, so the company based in south Carolina makes a smart belt and this belt is more function than fashion. The smart belt goes through the pant loops of a worker's uniform and it transmit data to the cloud so workers can see the type of activities they're doing throughout the day. Still with me. Good. Now with the smart belt, factory workers can get real time personalized alerts and recommendations in attempt to reduce injuries. Jeff Bezos has said in the past that amazon needed to develop solutions to lower the amount of injuries among new warehouse employees. And this energy around safety also comes after amazon pledge to become quote earth, safest place to work and after received pushback from lawmakers at the secret groups and its own employees over warehouse worker safety or lack there. Rough Okay, so it doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop with a smart belt. There's another company receiving an investment from amazon and they're called Agility robotics. The startup based of Oregon is developing a bipedal walking robot which is called digit. You can see digit is power working there. Now did. It aims to address the mobility limitations of traditional robots so that it can assist people wherever they are. But digits company says the robots are specifically engineered for tough warehouse work and designed to work with people not to replace them. That company says that they're aiming for a blended workforce where people and robots work side by side, not just one or the other, that would be lots of fun. Now there's another company that's being backed by the new fund and they're called bionic Hive. Now this company is based in Israel, it develops a robot called squid that can pick up and put away objects in warehouse shelves. Bionic Hive says it's only fully automated warehouse solution that easily adapts to any companies working module of operation by being compatible with any facility box or shelving rack set and forget kind of stuff here. Now, squid can also detect problems in a given warehouse and apply solutions to other warehouse in the entire company's network. This guy goes above and beyond. Now, last on the list. We have vomit And the startup, based in California, develops computer vision and Ai solutions, which aim to improve inventory management. So Varman says it is dedicated to providing brands and retailers with a 100% accurate view of their warehouse inventory. No more, asking them if you could check in the back to see if they have another. So the company also digitizes inventory, capture, tracking and management across an entire company's warehouse. That's accurate folks. Now, Amazon also says it included to be on the lookout for companies making the technologies, products and services of the future. If the tech giant's current investments proved to pay off and improve the experience for both its workers and customers, it could have a ripple effect because with amazon being viewed as a leader of warehouse efficiency, it can show that robots have the potential to keep improving how companies operate and that the future of business may look much different than it does right now