Amazon to expand robotics support

Amazon will be opening its 13th UK fulfilment centre next year, in Tilbury, Essex, to keep up with customer demand.

As well as 1,500 new permanent jobs for people, the centre will also utilise the same robotic technology that is being used at Amazon’s Dunstable and Doncaster centres.

Robots slide under towers of shelves where products are stowed, lift them and move them through the fulfilment centre to human workers who can then collect or deposit items. In this way, robots improve the efficiency of the centre, and save space, allowing for 50% more items to be stored per square foot.

As well as inventory staff, the centre is sure to need RAS personnel.

In related news, Amazon has reportedly been testing its delivery drones in the Cambridgeshire countryside. The US firm had hoped to test its drones in America, but after difficulties with the US FAA, had opted for Cambridgeshire, near a key Amazon R&D centre.