Designing Proteus: Amazon's first autonomous mobile robot
Case study summary
When Amazon Robotics developed Proteus, their first autonomous mobile robot (AMR), they leveraged their nearly decade-long relationship with TI for technological expertise. Our company’s embedded processors, power and connectivity solutions helped create safety bubbles and other safety-enabling technologies in Proteus, with the goal to optimize the fulfillment process and increase worker protections.
“Our collaboration is really built around Amazon’s excellence in robotics and TI’s excellence in embedded processing as well as analog,” said Keith Ogboenyiya, senior vice president of marketing at TI.
Challenge
Amazon Robotics needed a robot that could work alongside workers in the same facility harmoniously and safely, and operate at scale given the size of Amazon’s operations. Achieving this goal requires a combination of highly efficient vision processing at the edge, real-time control, and functional safety mechanisms. Each of these technologies allow the robot to interpret the world around it and react in a quick and safe manner.
Solution
Amazon Robotics’ designers were able to solve crucial safety and efficiency challenges in object detection and classification, safety bubble maintenance, movement adaption, and operational efficiency using TI’s embedded processors and associated power management multichannel ICs (PMICs), along with communications solutions such as Ethernet and Controller Area Network (CAN) and RS-485 protocols.
Results
Amazon’s first autonomous mobile robot, Proteus, can now navigate through Amazon facilities without being confined to restrictive areas. Equipped with TI technologies that enable safe operation, Proteus opens up increased possibilities for safely and effectively integrating automation into fulfillment centers and operating within Amazon.
Amazon Robotics improves functional safety with TI technology
With over 750,000 mobile robots deployed in its e-commerce operations, Amazon Robotics is the world’s largest manufacturer of industrial robots. As the adoption and autonomy of robots increases in fulfillment centers, factories and warehouses, controlled and secure interactions between robots and the humans working alongside them are paramount.
“Proteus is a mobile robot that can work near people. We can extend the reach of robots to places it couldn’t be before. What it allows us to do is bring robotics to those spaces where it can work tightly with humans,” said Parris Wellman, VP of engineering and robotics at Amazon.
The two companies have an almost decade-long relationship, collaborating to increase the adoption of robots in fulfillment centers. They initially started working together on Amazon Robotics’ Hercules, the first widely developed mobile robot with Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 2 safety certification. Now, TI and Amazon Robotics have built on their previous successes to equip Proteus, Amazon’s first autonomous mobile robot (AMR), with technologies that enable it to operate seamlessly in the same space as humans. Proteus has also achieved SIL 2 safety certification.
TI’s TDA4VM and DRA821 embedded processors facilitate what are known as safety bubbles, which are crucial to a robot’s ability to navigate around people. A safety bubble creates a protective boundary between robots and humans so that whenever a person approaches the robot’s vicinity, the robot can reroute and change paths. The TDA4VM, used with a RM46L852 microcontroller, makes the robot responsive and adaptable.
In addition to helping maintain the bubble, the TDA4VM and DRA821 processors both feature an integrated safety island that provides hardware diagnostics to support functional safety standards up to SIL 3. The tightly coupled mechanisms in these devices enhance safety when operating near humans in a variety of settings, even in the event of a system failure. These mechanisms provide system health diagnostics and can trigger corrective actions or shutdowns if Proteus detects the anomalies, helping optimize efficiency as well as their deployment setting.
“TI processors have a hardware infrastructure that allows safety to perform in concert with real-time functionality, and Amazon can develop their software on top of our platform,” Ogboenyiya said.
With TI’s embedded processor solutions, Proteus can autonomously navigate Amazon’s facilities. Additionally, power management solutions enable high power efficiency and high power density, which increases battery life and system safety. Connectivity solutions help the robot to communicate different protocols, such as Ethernet and CAN. While it provides functional support to a fulfillment center, such as lifting and transporting packaging carts, Proteus has the potential to do more within factory and warehouse settings. Because Amazon Robotics designs them to work safely, collaboratively, and effectively alongside people, AMRs such as Proteus can now access more confined areas that were once restricted to only humans.
“It’s been a great partnership, and we look forward to continuing to release robots together,” Wellman said.
About Amazon Robotics
On the Fulfillment Technologies & Robotics Team, Amazon builds dynamic partnerships between people and intelligent machines. This intricate collaboration helps Amazon fulfill orders with unmatched accuracy. Since Amazon began working with robotics, they’ve added over a million new jobs worldwide. Working in symphony with Amazon’s robotic technology, employees have the opportunity to extend their technical capabilities by working alongside some of the industry’s most advanced technologies. This includes their fleet of autonomous mobile robots, sophisticated control software, and technologies like language perception, machine learning, object recognition and semantic understanding of commands. These technologies help employees deliver an ever-improving customer and employee experience, as well as improve the safety of Amazon facilities.
Learn more about TI's robotics technologies
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