米アマゾン、最新仕分けロボット公開　新たな懸念も

【ウェストボローＡＦＰ＝時事】米小売り・ＩＴ大手アマゾン・ドットコムは今月、米マサチューセッツ州ボストン郊外にあるロボティクス（ロボット工学）研究拠点「ＢＯＳ２７」で最新鋭のロボットが商品を注文通りに器用に仕分ける様子を公開した。（写真は米マサチューセッツ州ウェストボローにあるアマゾンのロボティクス研究拠点「ＢＯＳ２７」で商品を仕分けするロボット「スパロー」）
　「スパロー」と名付けられたこのロボットは、近い将来、全米で数十万人の従業員が行っている年間約５０億個の商品の仕分け・発送作業をこなすようになるとみられている。
　一方で、こうしたロボットが開発されることで、いずれはアマゾンの倉庫内の作業が機械化され、大規模な人員削減が実施されるのではないかと労組関係者は懸念している。
　だが、ロボティクス部門の責任者タイ・ブレイディ氏は報道関係者向けの公開ツアーで、こうした懸念を一蹴。「人の代わりを務めるロボットではありません」とし、「ロボットと人が作業を共同で行うために協力しているのです」と説明した。
　カメラと円筒状のチューブを搭載したスパローは、形状や大きさが異なる数百万点の商品から目的の商品を探し出す。ベルトコンベヤーで運ばれてくる品物を丁寧に吸い上げ、ロボットアームで適切なカートに振り分けていく。
　アマゾン・ロボティクスの副社長ジョー・クィンリバン氏によると、同社が全米で扱っている年間約５０億個の宅配商品の約７５％は、発送までの段階でロボットが何らかの作業に関わっている。
　一般的には数十年前から、機械による自動化が進むと雇用が大幅に奪われると考えられてきた。
　現在は複数の研究調査で、ｅコマース（電子商取引）産業では需要が大幅に拡大していることから、短中期的には機械化への移行が大量の失業をもたらすことはないと考えられている。
　だが米カリフォルニア大学バークレー校労働研究センターは２０１９年の研究で、一部のテクノロジーによって手間のかかる作業が軽減される可能性がある一方、仕事量が増え、作業のペースが加速する恐れもあると指摘。
　さらに、技術の進歩によって「労働者を監視する新たな手法」が導入されるかもしれないと警告している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/11/28-11:35）

At Amazon's robotics laboratory on the outskirts of Boston, Massachusetts, the company's newest automaton Sparrow picks out items to be shipped to customers, displaying human hand-like dexterity.
It is the e-commerce giant's most advanced robot yet and could soon do the job of the hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees who sort and send five billion packages annually.
The development of Sparrow, and other robots like Robin and Cardinal, are fueling fears that Amazon's warehouses will one day be run by machines, leading to huge layoffs.
Amazon's robotics chief Tye Brady plays down such concerns, which have been expressed by labor unions.
It's not machines replacing people, he tells journalists during a tour of the laboratory, which opened in Westborough in October last year.
It's actually machines and people working together in order to collaborate to do a job.
Equipped with cameras and cylindrical tubes, Sparrow can successfully detect and select an individual item from millions of products of different shapes and sizes.
It gently sucks up items that arrive on a conveyor belt and distributes them into the appropriate basket in front of it using its robotic arm.
Robin and Cardinal can only redirect entire packages, making Sparrow Amazon's first robot to be able to handle individual products.
Given the variety of materials we have in our warehouses, Sparrow is a significant accomplishment, says Brady.
Working with the robotic trio is a small army of machines, including Proteus, which can carry hundreds of kilograms of items around warehouses.
The creations will free employees from repetitive tasks to focus on more rewarding and interesting activities while improving safety, Brady insists.
Amazon's focus is ensuring that as little time as possible passes between the moment a customer orders an item and the moment it arrives at his or her door.
- Drones -
That goal has led some workers to accuse the company of treating them like slaves and of depriving them of food and toilet breaks.
In statements, Amazon has insisted it provides a safe and positive workplace for employees and, apart from one warehouse in New York, has resisted unionization.
Amazon's desire to deliver items quicker is driving its investment in automation.
By the end of this year it will begin delivering packages weighing up to two kgs in less than an hour from warehouses in Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas.
The company aims to deliver 500 million packages by drone by the end of the decade, including in major US cities such as Boston, Atlanta and Seattle.
Around 75 percent of Amazon's five billion annual orders is handled at some point by a robot, according to Joe Quinlivan, vice president of Amazon Robotics.
For decades the conventional wisdom was that increased automation destroys workforces.
Studies now suggest that moving towards robots in e-commerce will not lead to massive job losses in the short to medium term due to the huge growth in demand.
However, a 2019 study by the University of California's Labor Center at Berkeley warned that while some technologies can alleviate arduous warehouse tasks, they could also contribute to increasing the workload and pace of work.
The researchers added that technological advancements might also contribute towards new methods of monitoring workers, and cited the Amazon's MissionRacer video game that pits workers against one another to assemble customer orders fastest.
Amazon says its innovation has generated more than a million jobs and 700 new job categories, mainly in highly specialized engineering, but also as technicians and operators.
I really think what we're going to do in the next five years is going to dwarf anything we've done in the last ten years, says Quinlivan.