This is a sponsored article brought to you by Amazon. The cutting edge of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) doesn’t occur just at NASA, or one of the top university labs, but instead is increasingly being developed in the warehouses of the e-commerce company Amazon. As online shopping continues to grow, companies like Amazon are pushing the boundaries of these technologies to meet consumer expectations. Warehouses, the backbone of the global supply chain, are undergoing a transformation driven by technological innovation. Amazon, at the forefront of this revolution, is leveraging robotics and AI to shape the warehouses of the future. Far from being just a logistics organization, Amazon is positioning itself as a leader in technological innovation, making it a prime destination for engineers and scientists seeking to shape the future of automation. Amazon: A Leader in Technological Innovation Amazon’s success in e-commerce is built on a foundation of continuous technological innovation. Its fulfillment centers are increasingly becoming hubs of cutting-edge technology where robotics and AI play a pivotal role. Heath Ruder, Director of Product Management at Amazon, explains how Amazon’s approach to integrating robotics with advanced material handling equipment is shaping the future of its warehouses. “We’re integrating several large-scale products into our next-generation fulfillment center in Shreveport, Louisiana,” says Ruder. “It’s our first opportunity to get our robotics systems combined under one roof and understand the end-to-end mechanics of how a building can run with incorporated autonomation.” Ruder is referring to the facility’s deployment of its Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS), called Sequoia, as well as robotic arms like “Robin” and “Cardinal” and Amazon’s proprietary autonomous mobile robot, “Proteus”. Amazon has already deployed “Robin”, a robotic arm that sorts packages for outbound shipping by transferring packages from conveyors to mobile robots. This system is already in use across various Amazon fulfillment centers and has completed over three billion successful package moves. “Cardinal” is another robotic arm system that efficiently packs packages into carts before the carts are loaded onto delivery trucks. “Proteus” is Amazon’s autonomous mobile robot designed to work around people. Unlike traditional robots confined to a restricted area, Proteus is fully autonomous and navigates through fulfillment centers using sensors and a mix of AI-based and ML systems. It works with human workers and other robots to transport carts full of packages more efficiently. The integration of these technologies is estimated to increase operational efficiency by 25 percent. “Our goal is to improve speed, quality, and cost. The efficiency gains we’re seeing from these systems are substantial,” says Ruder. However, the real challenge is scaling this technology across Amazon’s global network of fulfillment centers. “Shreveport was our testing ground and we are excited about what we have learned and will apply at our next building launching in 2025.” Amazon’s investment in cutting-edge robotics and AI systems is not just about operational efficiency. It underscores the company’s commitment to being a leader in technological innovation and workplace safety, making it a top destination for engineers and scientists looking to solve complex, real-world problems. How AI Models Are Trained: Learning from the Real World One of the most complex challenges Amazon’s robotics team faces is how to make robots capable of handling a wide variety of tasks that require discernment. Mike Wolf, a principal scientist at Amazon Robotics, plays a key role in developing AI models that enable robots to better manipulate objects, across a nearly infinite variety of scenarios. “The complexity of Amazon’s product catalog—hundreds of millions of unique items—demands advanced AI systems that can make real-time decisions about object handling,” explains Wolf. But how do these AI systems learn to handle such an immense variety of objects? Wolf’s team is developing machine learning algorithms that enable robots to learn from experience. “We’re developing the next generation of AI and robotics. For anyone interested in this field, Amazon is the place where you can make a difference on a global scale.” —Mike Wolf, Amazon Robotics In fact, robots at Amazon continuously gather data from their interactions with objects, refining their ability to predict how items will be affected when manipulated. Every interaction a robot has—whether it’s picking up a package or placing it into a container—feeds back into the system, refining the AI model and helping the robot to improve. “AI is continually learning from failure cases,” says Wolf. “Every time a robot fails to complete a task successfully, that’s actually an opportunity for the system to learn and improve.” This data-centric approach supports the development of state-of-the-art AI systems that can perform increasingly complex tasks, such as predicting how objects are affected when manipulated. This predictive ability will help robots determine the best way to pack irregularly shaped objects into containers or handle fragile items without damaging them. “We want AI that understands the physics of the environment, not just basic object recognition. The goal is to predict how objects will move and interact with one another in real time,” Wolf says. What’s Next in Warehouse Automation Valerie Samzun, Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon, leads a cutting-edge robotics program that aims to enhance workplace safety and make jobs more rewarding, fulfilling, and intellectually stimulating by allowing robots to handle repetitive tasks. “The goal is to reduce certain repetitive and physically demanding tasks from associates,” explains Samzun. “This allows them to focus on higher-value tasks in skilled roles.” This shift not only makes warehouse operations more efficient but also opens up new opportunities for workers to advance their careers by developing new technical skills. “Our research combines several cutting-edge technologies,” Samzun shared. “The project uses robotic arms equipped with compliant manipulation tools to detect the amount of force needed to move items without damaging them or other items.” This is an advancement that incorporates learnings from previous Amazon robotics projects. “This approach allows our robots to understand how to interact with different objects in a way that’s safe and efficient,” says Samzun. In addition to robotic manipulation, the project relies heavily on AI-driven algorithms that determine the best way to handle items and utilize space. Samzun believes the technology will eventually expand to other parts of Amazon’s operations, finding multiple applications across its vast network. “The potential applications for compliant manipulation are huge,” she says. Attracting Engineers and Scientists: Why Amazon is the Place to Be As Amazon continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible with robotics and AI, it’s also becoming a highly attractive destination for engineers, scientists, and technical professionals. Both Wolf and Samzun emphasize the unique opportunities Amazon offers to those interested in solving real-world problems at scale. For Wolf, who transitioned to Amazon from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the appeal lies in the sheer impact of the work. “The draw of Amazon is the ability to see your work deployed at scale. There’s no other place in the world where you can see your robotics work making a direct impact on millions of people’s lives every day,” he says. Wolf also highlights the collaborative nature of Amazon’s technical teams. Whether working on AI algorithms or robotic hardware, scientists and engineers at Amazon are constantly collaborating to solve new challenges. Amazon’s culture of innovation extends beyond just technology. It’s also about empowering people. Samzun, who comes from a non-engineering background, points out that Amazon is a place where anyone with the right mindset can thrive, regardless of their academic background. “I came from a business management background and found myself leading a robotics project,” she says. “Amazon provides the platform for you to grow, learn new skills, and work on some of the most exciting projects in the world.” For young engineers and scientists, Amazon offers a unique opportunity to work on state-of-the-art technology that has real-world impact. “We’re developing the next generation of AI and robotics,” says Wolf. “For anyone interested in this field, Amazon is the place where you can make a difference on a global scale.” The Future of Warehousing: A Fusion of Technology and Talent From Amazon’s leadership, it’s clear that the future of warehousing is about more than just automation. It’s about harnessing the power of robotics and AI to create smarter, more efficient, and safer working environments. But at its core it remains centered on people in its operations and those who make this technology possible—engineers, scientists, and technical professionals who are driven to solve some of the world’s most complex problems. Amazon’s commitment to innovation, combined with its vast operational scale, makes it a leader in warehouse automation. The company’s focus on integrating robotics, AI, and human collaboration is transforming how goods are processed, stored, and delivered. And with so many innovative projects underway, the future of Amazon’s warehouses is one where technology and human ingenuity work hand in hand. “We’re building systems that push the limits of robotics and AI,” says Wolf. “If you want to work on the cutting edge, this is the place to be.”

For more than a century, women and racial minorities have fought for access to education and employment opportunities once reserved exclusively for white men. The life of Yvonne Young “Y.Y.” Clark is a testament to the power of perseverance in that fight. As a smart Black woman who shattered the barriers imposed by race and gender, she made history multiple times during her career in academia and industry. She probably is best known as the first woman to serve as a faculty member in the engineering college at Tennessee State University, in Nashville. Her pioneering spirit extended far beyond the classroom, however, as she continuously staked out new territory for women and Black professionals in engineering. She accomplished a lot before she died on 27 January 2019 at her home in Nashville at the age of 89. Clark is the subject of the latest biography in IEEE-USA’s Famous Women Engineers in History series. “Don’t Give Up” was her mantra. An early passion for technology Born on 13 April 1929 in Houston, Clark moved with her family to Louisville, Ky., as a baby. She was raised in an academically driven household. Her father, Dr. Coleman M. Young Jr., was a surgeon. Her mother, Hortense H. Young, was a library scientist and journalist. Her mother’s “Tense Topics” column, published by the Louisville Defender newspaper, tackled segregation, housing discrimination, and civil rights issues, instilling awareness of social justice in Y.Y. Clark’s passion for technology became evident at a young age. As a child, she secretly repaired her family’s malfunctioning toaster, surprising her parents. It was a defining moment, signaling to her family that she was destined for a career in engineering—not in education like her older sister, a high school math teacher. “Y.Y.’s family didn’t create her passion or her talents. Those were her own,” said Carol Sutton Lewis, co-host and producer for the third season of the “Lost Women of Science” podcast, on which Clark was profiled. “What her family did do, and what they would continue to do, was make her interests viable in a world that wasn’t fair.” Clark’s interest in studying engineering was precipitated by her passion for aeronautics. She said all the pilots she spoke with had studied engineering, so she was determined to do so. She joined the Civil Air Patrol and took simulated flying lessons. She then learned to fly an airplane with the help of a family friend. Despite her academic excellence, though, racial barriers stood in her way. She graduated at age 16 from Louisville’s Central High School in 1945. Her parents, concerned that she was too young to attend college, sent her to Boston for two additional years at the Girls’ Latin School and Roxbury Memorial High School. She then applied to the University of Louisville, where she was initially accepted and offered a full scholarship. When university administrators realized she was Black, however, they rescinded the scholarship and the admission, Clark said on the “Lost Women of Science” podcast, which included clips from when her daughter interviewed her in 2007. As Clark explained in the interview, the state of Kentucky offered to pay her tuition to attend Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., rather than integrate its publicly funded university. Breaking barriers in higher education Although Howard provided an opportunity, it was not free of discrimination. Clark faced gender-based barriers, according to the IEEE-USA biography. She was the only woman among 300 mechanical engineering students, many of whom were World War II veterans. “Y.Y.’s family didn’t create her passion or her talents. Those were her own. What her family did do, and what they would continue to do, was make her interests viable in a world that wasn’t fair.” —Carol Sutton Lewis Despite the challenges, she persevered and in 1951 became the first woman to earn a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the university. The school downplayed her historic achievement, however. In fact, she was not allowed to march with her classmates at graduation. Instead, she received her diploma during a private ceremony in the university president’s office. A career defined by firsts Determined to forge a career in engineering, Clark repeatedly encountered racial and gender discrimination. In a 2007 Society of Women Engineers (SWE) StoryCorps interview, she recalled that when she applied for an engineering position with the U.S. Navy, the interviewer bluntly told her, “I don’t think I can hire you.” When she asked why not, he replied, “You’re female, and all engineers go out on a shakedown cruise,” the trip during which the performance of a ship is tested before it enters service or after it undergoes major changes such as an overhaul. She said the interviewer told her, “The omen is: ‘No females on the shakedown cruise.’” Clark eventually landed a job with the U.S. Army’s Frankford Arsenal gauge laboratories in Philadelphia, becoming the first Black woman hired there. She designed gauges and finalized product drawings for the small-arms ammunition and range-finding instruments manufactured there. Tensions arose, however, when some of her colleagues resented that she earned more money due to overtime pay, according to the IEEE-USA biography. To ease workplace tensions, the Army reduced her hours, prompting her to seek other opportunities. Her future husband, Bill Clark, saw the difficulty she was having securing interviews, and suggested she use the gender-neutral name Y.Y. on her résumé. The tactic worked. She became the first Black woman hired by RCA in 1955. She worked for the company’s electronic tube division in Camden, N.J. Although she excelled at designing factory equipment, she encountered more workplace hostility. “Sadly,” the IEEE-USA biography says, she “felt animosity from her colleagues and resentment for her success.” When Bill, who had taken a faculty position as a biochemistry instructor at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, proposed marriage, she eagerly accepted. They married in December 1955, and she moved to Nashville. In 1956 Clark applied for a full-time position at Ford Motor Co.’s Nashville glass plant, where she had interned during the summers while she was a Howard student. Despite her qualifications, she was denied the job due to her race and gender, she said. She decided to pursue a career in academia, becoming in 1956 the first woman to teach mechanical engineering at Tennessee State University. In 1965 she became the first woman to chair TSU’s mechanical engineering department. While teaching at TSU, she pursued further education, earning a master’s degree in engineering management from Nashville’s Vanderbilt University in 1972—another step in her lifelong commitment to professional growth. After 55 years with the university, where she was also a freshman student advisor for much of that time, Clark retired in 2011 and was named professor emeritus. A legacy of leadership and advocacy Clark’s influence extended far beyond TSU. She was active in the Society of Women Engineers after becoming its first Black member in 1951. Racism, however, followed her even within professional circles. At the 1957 SWE conference in Houston, the event’s hotel initially refused her entry due to segregation policies, according to a 2022 profile of Clark. Under pressure from the society’s leadership, the hotel compromised; Clark could attend sessions but had to be escorted by a white woman at all times and was not allowed to stay in the hotel despite having paid for a room. She was reimbursed and instead stayed with relatives. As a result of that incident, the SWE vowed never again to hold a conference in a segregated city. Over the decades, Clark remained a champion for women in STEM. In one SWE interview, she advised future generations: “Prepare yourself. Do your work. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and benefit by meeting with other women. Whatever you like, learn about it and pursue it. “The environment is what you make it. Sometimes the environment is hostile, but don’t worry about it. Be aware of it so you aren’t blindsided.” Her contributions earned her numerous accolades including the 1998 SWE Distinguished Engineering Educator Award and the 2001 Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers Distinguished Service Award. A lasting impression Clark’s legacy was not confined to engineering; she was deeply involved in Nashville community service. She served on the board of the 18th Avenue Family Enrichment Center and participated in the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. She was active in the Hendersonville Area chapter of The Links, a volunteer service organization for Black women, and the Nashville alumnae chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She also mentored members of the Boy Scouts, many of whom went on to pursue engineering careers. Clark spent her life knocking down barriers that tried to impede her. She didn’t just break the glass ceiling—she engineered a way through it for people who came after her.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion. RoboSoft 2025: 23–26 April 2025, LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND ICUAS 2025: 14–17 May 2025, CHARLOTTE, NC ICRA 2025: 19–23 May 2025, ATLANTA, GA London Humanoids Summit: 29–30 May 2025, LONDON IEEE RCAR 2025: 1–6 June 2025, TOYAMA, JAPAN 2025 Energy Drone & Robotics Summit: 16–18 June 2025, HOUSTON, TX RSS 2025: 21–25 June 2025, LOS ANGELES ETH Robotics Summer School: 21–27 June 2025, GENEVA IAS 2025: 30 June–4 July 2025, GENOA, ITALY ICRES 2025: 3–4 July 2025, PORTO, PORTUGAL IEEE World Haptics: 8–11 July 2025, SUWON, KOREA IFAC Symposium on Robotics: 15–18 July 2025, PARIS RoboCup 2025: 15–21 July 2025, BAHIA, BRAZIL RO-MAN 2025: 25–29 August 2025, EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS CLAWAR 2025: 5–7 September 2025, SHENZHEN World Robot Summit: 10–12 October 2025, OSAKA, JAPAN IROS 2025: 19–25 October 2025, HANGZHOU, CHINA IEEE Humanoids: 30 September–2 October 2025, SEOUL CoRL 2025: 27–30 September 2025, SEOUL Enjoy today’s videos! MIT engineers developed an insect-sized jumping robot that can traverse challenging terrains while using far less energy than an aerial robot of comparable size. This tiny, hopping robot can leap over tall obstacles and jump across slanted or uneven surfaces carrying about 10 times more payload than a similar-sized aerial robot, opening the door to many new applications. [ MIT ] CubiX is a wire-driven robot that connects to the environment through wires, with drones used to establish these connections. By integrating with various tools and a robot, it performs tasks beyond the limitations of its physical structure. [ JSK Lab ] Thanks, Shintaro! It’s a game a lot of us played as children—and maybe even later in life: unspooling measuring tape to see how far it would extend before bending. But to engineers at the University of California San Diego, this game was an inspiration, suggesting that measuring tape could become a great material for a robotic gripper. [ University of California San Diego ] I enjoyed the Murderbot books, and the trailer for the TV show actually looks not terrible. [ Murderbot ] For service robots, being able to operate an unmodified elevator is much more difficult (and much more important) than you might think. [ Pudu Robotics ] There’s a lot of buzz around impressive robotics demos — but taking Physical AI from demo to real-world deployment is a journey that demands serious engineering muscle. Hammering out the edge cases and getting to scale is 500x the effort of getting to the first demo. See our process for building this out for the singulation and induction Physical AI solution trusted by some of the world’s leading parcel carriers. Here’s to the teams likewise committed to the grind toward reliability and scale. [ Dexterity Robotics ] I am utterly charmed by the design of this little robot. [ RoMeLa ] This video shows a shortened version of Issey Miyake’s Fly With Me runway show from 2025 Paris Men’s Fashion Week. My collaborators and I brought two industrial robots to life to be the central feature of the minimalist scenography for the Japanese brand. Each ABB IRB 6640 robot held a two meter square piece of fabric, and moved synchronously in flowing motions to match the emotional timing of the runway show. With only three-weeks development time and three days on-site, I built custom live coding tools that opened up the industrial robots to more improvisational workflows. This level of reliable, real-time control unlocked the flexibility needed by the Issey Miyake team to make the necessary last-minute creative decisions for the show. [ Atonaton ] Meet Clone’s first musculoskeletal android: Protoclone, the most anatomically accurate robot in the world. Based on a natural human skeleton, Protoclone is actuated with over 1,000 Myofibers, Clone’s proprietary artificial muscle technology. [ Clone Robotics ] There are a lot of heavily produced humanoid robot videos from the companies selling them, but now that these platforms are entering the research space, we should start getting a more realistic sense of their capabilities. [ University College London ] Here’s a bit more footage from RIVR on their home delivery robot. [ RIVR ] And now, this. [ EngineAI ] Robots are at the heart of sci-fi, visions of the future, but what if that future is now? And what if those robots, helping us at work and at home, are simply an extension of the tools we’ve used for millions of years? That’s what artist and engineer Catie Cuan thinks, and it’s part of the reason she teaches robots to dance. In this episode we meet the people at the frontiers of the future of robotics and Astro Teller introduces two groundbreaking projects, Everyday Robots and Intrinsic, that have advanced how robots could work not just for us but with us. [ Moonshot Podcast ]

This dairy barn is full of cows, as you might expect. Cows are being milked, cows are being fed, cows are being cleaned up after, and a few very happy cows are even getting vigorously scratched behind the ears. “I wonder where the farmer is,” remarks my guide, Jan Jacobs. Jacobs doesn’t seem especially worried, though—the several hundred cows in this barn are being well cared for by a small fleet of fully autonomous robots, and the farmer might not be back for hours. The robots will let him know if anything goes wrong. more frequently than the twice a day at a traditional dairy farm. Not only is getting milked more often more comfortable for the cows, cows also produce about 10 percent more milk when the milking schedule is completely up to them. Jan Jacobs is the human-robot interaction design lead for Lely, a maker of agricultural machinery. Founded in 1948 in Maassluis, Netherlands, Lely deployed its first Astronaut milking robot in the early 1990s. The company has since developed other robotic systems that assist with cleaning, feeding, and cow comfort, and the Astronaut milking robot is on its fifth generation. Lely is now focused entirely on robots for dairy farms, with around 135,000 of them deployed around the world. Essential Jobs on Dairy Farms The weather outside the barn is miserable. It’s late fall in the Netherlands, and a cold rain is gusting in from the sea, which is probably why the cows have quite sensibly decided to stay indoors and why the farmer is still nowhere to be found. Lely requires that dairy farmers who adopt its robots commit to letting their cows move freely between milking, feeding, and resting, as well as inside and outside the barn, at their own pace. “We believe that free cow traffic is a core part of the future of farming,” Jacobs says as we watch one cow stroll away from the milking robot while another takes its place. This is possible only when the farm operates on the cows’ schedule rather than a human’s. “We were spending 6 hours a day milking,” explains dairy farmer Josie Rozum, whose 120-cow herd at Takes Dairy Farm uses a pair of Astronaut A5 milking robots. “Now that the robots are handling all of that, we can focus more on animal care and comfort.”Lely in just 20 to 30 seconds. The actual milking takes only a few minutes, but with the average small dairy farm in North America providing a home for several hundred cows, milking typically represents a time commitment of 4 to 6 hours per day. Cows are happier with continuous access to food, which means feeding them several times a day. The feed is a mix of roughage (hay), silage (grass), and grain. The cows will eat all of this, but they prefer the grain, and so it’s common to see cows sorting their food by grabbing a mouthful and throwing it up into the air. The lighter roughage and silage flies farther than the grain does, leaving the cow with a pile of the tastier stuff as the rest gets tossed out of reach. This makes “feed pushing” necessary to shove the rest of the feed back within reach of the cow. 68 kilograms of manure a day. All that manure has to be collected and the barn floors regularly cleaned. Dairy Industry 4.0 The amount of labor needed to operate a dairy meant that until the early 1900s, most family farms could support only about eight cows. The introduction of the first milking machines, called bucket milkers, helped farmers milk 10 cows per hour instead of 4 by the mid-1920s. Rural electrification furthered dairy automation starting in the 1950s, and since then, both farm size and milk production have increased steadily. In the 1930s, a good dairy cow produced 3,600 kilograms of milk per year. Today, it’s almost 11,000 kilograms, and Lely believes that robots are what will enable small dairy farms to continue to scale sustainably. Lely But dairy robots are expensive. A milking robot can cost several hundred thousand dollars, plus an additional US $5,000 to $10,000 per year in operating costs. The Astronaut A5, Lely’s latest milking robot, uses a laser-guided robot arm to clean the cow’s udder before attaching teat cups one at a time. While the cow munches on treats, the Astronaut monitors her milk output, collecting data on 32 parameters, including indicators of the quality of the milk and the health of the cow. When milking is complete, the robot cleans the udder again, and the cow is free to leave as the robot steam cleans itself in preparation for the next cow. Lely argues that although the initial cost is higher than that of a traditional milking parlor, the robots pay for themselves over time through higher milk production (due primarily to increased milking frequency) and lower labor costs. Lely’s other robots can also save on labor. The Vector mobile robot handles continuous feeding and feed pushing, and the Discovery Collector is a robotic manure vacuum that keeps the floors clean. At Takes Dairy Farm, Rozum and her family used to spend several hours per day managing food for the cows. “The feeding robot is another amazing piece of the puzzle for our farm that allows us to focus on other things.”Takes Family Farm Marcia Endres, a professor in the department of animal science at the University of Minnesota. Endres specializes in dairy-cattle management, behavior, and welfare, and studies dairy robot adoption. “When we first started doing research on this about 12 years ago, most of the farms that were installing robots were smaller farms that did not want to hire employees,” Endres says. “They wanted to do the work just with family labor, but they also wanted to have more flexibility with their time. They wanted a better lifestyle.” added Lely robots to their dairy farm in Ely, Iowa, four years ago. “When we had our old milking parlor, everything that we did as a family was always scheduled around milking,” says Josie Rozum, who manages the farm and a creamery along with her parents—Dan and Debbie Takes—and three brothers. “With the robots, we can prioritize our personal life a little bit more—we can spend time together on Christmas morning and know that the cows are still getting milked.” Takes Family Dairy Farm’s 120-cow herd is milked by a pair of Astronaut A5 robots, with a Vector and three Discovery Collectors for feeding and cleaning. “They’ve become a crucial part of the team,” explains Rozum. “It would be challenging for us to find outside help, and the robots keep things running smoothly.” The robots also add sustainability to small dairy farms, and not just in the short term. “Growing up on the farm, we experienced the hard work, and we saw what that commitment did to our parents,” Rozum explains. “It’s a very tough lifestyle. Having the robots take over a little bit of that has made dairy farming more appealing to our generation.” Takes Dairy Farm about a third of the adoption rate in Europe, where farms tend to be smaller, so the cost of implementing the robots is lower. Endres says that over the last five years, she’s seen a shift toward robot adoption at larger farms with over 500 cows, due primarily to labor shortages. “These larger dairies are having difficulty finding employees who want to milk cows—it’s a very tedious job. And the robot is always consistent. The farmers tell me, ‘My robot never calls in sick, and never shows up drunk.’ ” The Lely Luna cow brush helps to keep cows’ skin healthy. It’s also relaxing and enjoyable, so cows will brush themselves several times a day.Lely much more relaxed and friendly toward people they meet. Rozum agrees. “We’ve noticed a tremendous change in our cows’ demeanor. They’re more calm and relaxed, just doing their thing in the barn. They’re much more comfortable when they can choose what to do.” Cows Versus Robots Cows are curious and clever animals, and have the same instinct that humans have when confronted with a new robot: They want to play with it. Because of this, Lely has had to cow-proof its robots, modifying their design and programming so that the machines can function autonomously around cows. Like many mobile robots, Lely’s dairy robots include contact-sensing bumpers that will pause the robot’s motion if it runs into something. On the Vector feeding robot, Lely product engineer René Beltman tells me, they had to add a software option to disable the bumper. “The cows learned that, ‘oh, if I just push the bumper, then the robot will stop and put down more feed in my area for me to eat.’ It was a free buffet. So you don’t want the cows to end up controlling the robot.” Emergency stop buttons had to be relocated so that they couldn’t be pressed by questing cow tongues. One of the dirtiest jobs on a dairy farm is handled by the Discovery Collector, an autonomous manure vacuum. The robot relies on wheel odometry and ultrasonic sensors for navigation because it’s usually covered in manure.Evan Ackerman Besides maintaining their dominance at the top of the herd, the current generation of Lely robots doesn’t interact much with the cows, but that’s changing, Jacobs tells me. Right now, when a robot is driving through the barn, it makes a beeping sound to let the cows know it’s coming. Lely is looking into how to make these sounds more enjoyable for the cows. “This was a recent revelation for me,” Jacobs says. ”We’re not just designing interactions for humans. The cows are our users, too.” Human-Robot Interaction Last year, Jacobs and researchers from Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands, presented a paper at the IEEE Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Conference exploring this concept of robot behavior development on working dairy farms. The researchers visited robotic dairies, interviewed dairy farmers, and held workshops within Lely to establish a robot code of conduct—a guide that Lely’s designers and engineers use when considering how their robots should look, sound, and act, for the benefit of both humans and cows. On the engineering side, this includes practical things like colors and patterns for lights and different types of sounds so that information is communicated consistently across platforms. Jacobs doesn’t want his robots to try to be anyone’s friend—not the cow’s, and not the farmer’s. “The robot is an employee, and it should have a professional relationship,” he says. “So the robot might say ‘Hi,’ but it wouldn’t say, ‘How are you feeling today?’ ” What’s more important is that the robots are trustworthy. For Jacobs, instilling trust is simple: “You cannot gain trust by doing tricks. If your robot is reliable and predictable, people will trust it.” The electrically driven, pneumatically balanced robotic arm that the Lely Astronaut uses to milk cows is designed to withstand accidental (or intentional) kicks.Lely From Dairy Farmers to Robot Managers With the additional time and flexibility that the robots enable, some dairy farmers have been able to diversify. On our way back to Lely’s headquarters, we stop at Farm Het Lansingerland, owned by a Lely customer who has added a small restaurant and farm shop to his dairy. Large windows look into the barn so that restaurant patrons can watch the robots at work, caring for the cows that produce the cheese that’s on the menu. A self-guided tour takes you right up next to an Astronaut A5 milking robot, while signs on the floor warn of Vector feeding robots on the move. “This farmer couldn’t expand—this was as many cows as he’s allowed to have here,” Jacobs explains to me over cheese sandwiches. “So, he needs to have additional income streams. That’s why he started these other things. And the robots were essential for that.” Besides managing the robots, the farmer must also learn to manage the massive amount of data that the robots generate about the cows. “The amount of data we get from the robots is a game changer,” says Rozum. “We can track milk production, health, and cow habits in real time. But it’s overwhelming. You could spend all day just sitting at the computer, looking at data and not get anything else done. It took us probably a year to really learn how to use it.” A Robotic Dairy A: One Astronaut A5 robot can milk up to 60 cows. After the Astronaut cleans the teats, a laser sensor guides a robotic arm to attach the teat cups. Milking takes just a few minutes. C: The Vector robot dispenses freshly mixed food in small batches throughout the day. A laser measures the height of leftover food to make sure that the cows are getting the right amounts. E: As it milks, the Astronaut is collecting a huge amount of data—32 different parameters per teat. If it detects an issue, the farmer is notified, helping to catch health problems early. F: Automated gates control meadow access and will keep a cow inside if she’s due to be milked soon. Cows are identified using RFID collars, which also track their behavior and health. A Sensible Future for Dairy Robots After lunch, we stop by Lely headquarters, where bright red life-size cow statues guard the entrance and all of the conference rooms are dairy themed. We get comfortable in Butter, and I ask Jacobs and Beltman what the future holds for their dairy robots. feed-pushing robot is equipped with lidar and stereo cameras, which allow it to autonomously navigate around large farms without needing to follow a metal strip bolted to the ground. A new overhead camera system will leverage AI to recognize individual cows and track their behavior, while also providing farmers with an enormous new dataset that could allow Lely’s systems to help farmers make more nuanced decisions about cow welfare. The potential of AI is what Jacobs seems most excited about, although he’s cautious as well. “With AI, we’re suddenly going to take away an entirely different level of work. So, we’re thinking about doing research into the meaningfulness of work, to make sure that the things that we do with AI are the things that farmers want us to do with AI.” Lely is aware of this and knows that its robots have to find the right balance between being helpful, and taking over. “We want to make sure not to take away the kinds of interactions that give dairy farmers joy in their work,” says Beltman. “Like feeding calves—every farmer likes to feed the calves.” Lely does sell an automated calf feeder that many dairy farmers buy, which illustrates the point: What’s the best way of designing robots to give humans the flexibility to do the work that they enjoy? Dairy farms are different. Perhaps that’s because the person buying the robot is the person who most directly benefits from it. But I wonder if the concern over automation of jobs would be mitigated if more companies chose to emphasize the sustainability and joy of work equally with profit. Automation doesn’t have to be zero-sum—if implemented thoughtfully, perhaps robots can make work easier, more efficient, and more fun, too. Jacobs certainly thinks so. “That’s my utopia,” he says. “And we’re working in the right direction.”