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Robots made employees less safe by causing managers to raise performance quotas. Working closely with robots such as in a warehouse or on a construction site may pose different hazards. Exposure to new risks, such as electromagnetic fields, lasers, etc. Accidents can result from a lack of understanding, knowledge, or control of robotic work processes. This includes traditional industrial robots as well as emerging technologies such as drone aircraft and wearable robotics exoskeletons
Amazon's warehouse robots are apparently so efficient that quotas have increased substantially, requiring workers to do repetitive motions over long shifts that can eventually lead to injuries. The OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) data showed Amazon's injury rate declined between 2019 and 2021 while other large retailers saw an increase. Between 2016 and 2019 serious injuries occurred more often in Amazon warehouses with robots than in those without robots. And it found that since 2017 the company's only annual decline in worker injury rates took place in 2020 when it temporarily reduced worker quotas as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Injury rates then increased 20 percent in 2021.
Amazon company officials call their first fully mobile and collaborative robot. Amazon has unveiled Proteus, the e-commerce giant's first fully autonomous mobile warehouse robot. Amazon company plans to eventually automate GoCart handling throughout its warehouse network to reduce the need for its people to manually move heavy objects and let them focus on other work. But Amazon didn't mention that track record late last month after Proteus was introduced.
Proteus emits a green beam ahead of it while it moves, and it stops if a human worker steps in front of the beam. Another new robot called Cardinal was also designed with the idea of reducing the risk of employee injuries in mind. Cardinal is a robotic arm that picks up packages, reads their labels, and then places them in the appropriate cart for the next stage of the shipping process. Amazon's promotion of new robots that avoid running into people is a distraction from the primary causes of injuries in its facilities.
Amazon warehouses are unusually unsafe. In the U.S., there were 5.9 serious workplace injuries per 100 employees at Amazon warehouses in 2020 nearly double the rate of non-Amazon warehouses. Amazon's "facilities with robotic technology had a serious injury rate of 7.9 per 100 workers, more than 54 percent higher than the serious injury rate at non-robotic. To avoid workplace injuries, warehouse workers should be involved in the design of robot integration from the beginning.
Amazon's robotics fulfillment centers are more dangerous still. Amazon said that "the use of robotics, automation, and technology in our fulfillment centers is enhancing our workplace, making jobs safer and more efficient. Amazon pledged to reduce musculoskeletal risk and injuries by 25 percent by 2025. An Amazon robotics lead told "replacing people with machines is just a fallacy" that could end with a company going out of business.
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