Next time you order anything from GAP, Staples or Zappos, you should know that your order was filled by a autonomous robot. Interactive autonomous robots are invading the warehouses of retail giants. Soon we'll see a line of retail stores, including Walmart, installing KIVA systems in their warehouses. The combination of software and ease of use is what makes KIVA Robots so promising.


The robot is an orange colored scoobas, which are guided by a very simple grid of stickers attached to the floor. The robots are told where the products are located and rest they have to figure out themselves.

Essentially, robots would have to take care of three important things:

1. Identify direct path to carry a product from one end to another.
2. Stop and improvise in case their is any obstruction in robot's path.
3. Communicate with the other robots coming from different directions.


























As simple as these tasks seem, it becomes formidable to see more than 500 bots functioning at the same time in a single warehouse. Although robots do the most of the job, ranging from stacking to transporting goods, humans are still the integral part of the system. KIVA robots move the racks, but human hands move and scan items. The most efficiency-friendly environment application in current time.

Overall Kiva Systems has created a paradigm shift in human-machine interaction. Yet there is an obvious conflict between the proponents of robotics and people who are apprehensive about robots replacing human work force. I believe the human-robot work sharing is a start of things to come. In next ten-twenty years robots may replace all human workforce in manual fields. Some jobs are definitely lost in the process, but eventually more jobs will be created in the service and consulting fields. Nonetheless, human-robot co-operation is a great way of transitioning from human-labor workforce to human less environment.

Here is short video to give you a glimpse of how Kiva Systems actually works.