The upgraded warehouse robot can navigate fulfillment centers using spoken or typed instructions as Amazon plans more than €10 billion in European logistics investment and wider robot rollouts.
Amazon demonstrated an upgraded version of its Proteus warehouse robot in London on June 4, adding the ability for workers to direct it using plain English spoken or typed commands. The robot can move across entire fulfillment centers, determine routes and priorities on its own, and handle timing without programming, expanding on the first Proteus model that was limited to dock zones in 25 U.S. fulfillment centers and used to haul carts weighing up to 400 kilograms. Amazon said the new version is being tested in labs and is slated for European sites in the first half of 2027, with the first real-world European pilot planned for early 2027. The rollout comes as Amazon says it will invest more than €10 billion over the next few years to upgrade and expand its European fulfillment network, a plan that also includes 25,000 new warehouse jobs. The company is also scaling up two other robots: Vulcan, described by Amazon as its first touch-sensing robot, and STARK, which lifts and places loaded totes and is due to be available in 15 European sites by 2027. Amazon says it now operates more than 1 million robots globally and argues automation is shifting workers into roles such as inventory management, quality control, maintenance, reliability and engineering, even as the company has also cut close to 30,000 positions across several divisions over the past year and has faced scrutiny over warehouse safety.