E-commerce retailer Amazon will begin testing a humanoid robot at its robotics research and development site near Seattle.

The bipedal robot, named Digit, was developed in partnership with Agility Robotics, Amazon Robotics vice president Scott Dresser says in an update on the Amazon website.

“Digit can move, grasp and handle items in spaces and corners of warehouses in novel ways,” Dresser says.

“Its size and shape are well suited for buildings that are designed for humans, and we believe that there is a big opportunity to scale a mobile manipulator solution, such as Digit, which can work collaboratively with employees.”

Dresser says Amazon will initially use Digit to help employees with tote recycling, the highly repetitive process of picking up and moving empty totes once inventory has been completely picked out of them.

Digit creator Agility Robots will open a manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon later this year.

The company’s RoboFab facility is capable of producing more than 10,000 robots a year.

At full capacity, RoboFab will employ more than 500 workers in Salem, in addition to employees at Agility’s other locations. Digit also will work in the new factory, in a similar capacity to Agility's customer sites, moving, loading, and unloading totes. 

Meanwhile, Amazon, with more than 750,000 robots at work alongside its human employees, has rolled out a new robotics system at its fulfilment centre in Houston, Texas to help fulfill holiday shopping orders.

The Sequoia system can identify and store inventory up to 75% faster.

“Building off a series of research and development efforts, Sequoia integrates multiple robot systems to containerise our inventory into totes, bringing together mobile robots, gantry systems, robotic arms and a new ergonomic employee workstation,” Dresser says.

“The system works by having mobile robots transport containerised inventory directly to a gantry, a tall frame with a platform supporting equipment that can either restock totes or send them to an employee to pick out inventory that customers have ordered.

“These totes come to employees at a newly-designed ergonomic workstation that allows them to do all their work in their power zone, between mid-thigh and mid-chest height.

“With this system, employees will no longer have to regularly reach above their heads or squat down to pick customer orders, supporting our efforts to reduce the risk of injuries.”