Let's Tear Down a Kiva Bot! (robohub.org) 22
Ben Einstein, writes new submitter Robofenix2, has torn down a Kiva bot -- a mobile ground-based warehouse delivery drone, aka Amazon's busiest employee. These robotic systems have revolutionised the warehouse distribution industry helping deliver packages. Ben was able to get his hands on an older generation, end-of-life Kiva bot and cracked open its bright orange shell to expose a brilliant piece of engineering; this post shares the fruits of Kiva's hard work. This 2011 video is also worth viewing, not least to see Kiva's shelf-lifting corkscrew action.
LET'S SLASHDOT ROBOHUB! (Score:2)
Meh. Logistics is boring. (Score:2)
Sure, it's a "robot" (a machine that moves around and does stuff), but really it's just some motors, linkages, and a bunch of software that we aren't allowed to see anyhow. Who cares?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go check the mail. I ordered some new spools of filament for my 3D printer from Amazon on Saturday, and they'd better be here.
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Here we go (Score:2)
End of all our jobs! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is how Amazon will end all our jobs! They're able to sell products 40% cheaper than anyone else, which is leaving us with damn near twice as much money in our pockets, which we spend on other stuff, meaning people have to make other stuff, so we have to create all these job-ending jobs where people who aren't plodding around warehouses are doing something else useful!
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What stuff on there really is any cheaper these days? I've been buying from them less often in recent years as I've been able to find the same price or even lower at local stores where I can at least have it right away. Plus since they have to collect sales tax now in my state that gap has been closed as well.
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They have a core group of dedicated fans. They don't care about the cheapest, they care that it's online and that they never leave their chairs. Amazon has been getting people hooked on this with Amazon Prime, so even if some people care about the money they still feel that they must make use of that expenditure and get free shipping rather than head down to the local stores with the local employees.
(I laugh when some of these fans say "but Prime is essentially free because it pays for itself!")
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How dare you learn about how capitalism works before posting about capitalism? We *all* might end up learning something!
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There would be. We've been eliminating jobs since hunter-gatherers stopped working 20 hours per week just to acquire food (much less prepare it) for each one person, instead letting agrarians farm it so they had time to make tools. (Now less than 2% of our society is agricultural workers, and the other 98% build roads and put rocket ships on the moon.)
People become unable to find work when there aren't enough consumer dollars to pay them.
Think about it for a minute. Create a level, communist utopia,
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It was kind of a crude joke. It works that way, but there's a long cycle involved. Essentially, you lose jobs today, and recreate them in 3-5 years; our unemployment rate reflects this happening across a huge number of markets, creating jobs as we lose other jobs. That's why we have welfare: Unemployment is a necessity if you want to increase the standard-of-living.
These would be useful in robot wars! (Score:1)
Where can I buy one?