Gallery: Amazon Reveals the Robots at the Heart of Its Epic Cyber Monday Operation

  • Image may contain Building Warehouse Vehicle Car Transportation and Automobile
    Drew Kelly for WIRED
    01

    dk-113014-301 An Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, CA.

    Kiva warehouse robots at the ready at Amazon's fulfillment center in Tracy, California, the day before Cyber Monday.
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    Drew Kelly for WIRED
    02

    dk-113014-431 An Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, CA.

    An Amazon technician works on a mobile laptop stand. Behind him, the cage where the warehouse robots roam.
  • Image may contain Building and Factory
    Drew Kelly for WIRED
    03

    dk-113014-295 An Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, CA.

    Plastic totes carrying Amazon inventory traverse the million-square-foot fulfillment center known as OAK4.
  • Image may contain Building Factory Human Person Warehouse and Manufacturing
    Drew Kelly for WIRED
    04

    dk-113014-199 An Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, CA.

    Amazon workers in Santa hats pack boxes the day before the Cyber Monday crush.
  • Image may contain Building Human Person and Factory
    Drew Kelly for WIRED
    05

    dk-113014-250 An Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, CA.

    The Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, California, can ship 700,000 items per day. That number could rise as high as 1.5 million when it begins operating at full capacity.
  • Image may contain Building Warehouse Human Person and Shelf
    Drew Kelly for WIRED
    06

    dk-113014-389 An Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, CA.

    An Amazon "picker" pulls an order from a four-sided shelf carried by a Kiva robot.
  • Image may contain Human Person Building Footwear Clothing Shoe Apparel Shelf and Factory
    Drew Kelly for WIRED
    07

    dk-113014-48 An Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, CA.

    The Kiva robots eliminate the need for walking by bringing the shelves to stations where items are stowed.
  • Image may contain Building and Warehouse
    Drew Kelly for WIRED
    08

    dk-113014-107 An Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, CA.

    In the din of an Amazon fulfillment center, Kiva robots slide in near-silence along invisible grids in their fenced-off zones.
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