Amazon has patented a system that would put workers in a cage, on top of a robot

The cage design is probably objectively pretty bad (I don't want to work in there), but the headline is a bit sensationalist. The idea here is that Amazon has a bunch of robots running around in a massive environment. Safe robot-human interaction in close contact situations is still a research problem. This device is obviously meant for the safety of the operator if a robotics engineers looked at it. I know people don't really like big companies and Amazon, but in this case I think the reporting is a bit over the top. The intention of the system is not to enslave humans. The technology is nowhere near there. If anything, we're enslaved by them because they're constantly broken and we have to go fix them by riding this cage of a robot!

> Here, the worker becomes a part of a machinic ballet, held upright in a cage which dictates and constrains their movement.

The depiction here is way too sensationalist and eye-roll-inducing. If we want to go there, how is this different from let's say.. a car (or a self-driving car), or even the idea of working for companies to sustain your daily life, especially in person. In any case, I think we can all agree that a mobile safety system like this should have some better industrial design than that diagram.

Sensationalist. We put humans into cages when they race Formula 1 (for the same reason as this - protection) and we don't call that dehumanizing.

and the journalist would describe a crane as 'construction companies lock workers in small box at great height, on top of giant robot arm'

this type of sensationalist news is annoying at best and harmful at worst

They are trying to be defensive about it - but I think it is a good system . They are heading toward a future where warehouses are fully automated and it is dangerous for a human to enter this kind of auotmated warehouse . In that sense , it is not a bad design to protect the human from the worker robots.

This is one of the places the internet meme of 'Wagie Wagie get back in your Cagie' original stemmed from, at least from what I've seen. Given Amazon's treatment of workers I think the bleak outlook isn't totally unwarranted.

You'll find plenty of examples of safety cages for use in threatening environments. This is just one example that Amazon-bashers keep trying to make into something else.

Wait until they get a load of the popemobile

But in all seriousness, this is the same sort of caging currently put around robots to prevent humans being struck by an unexpected stray movement. While collaborative robots are starting to become more common, the overwhelming majority of industrial robots will go right through a person effortlessly and not even notice they hit anything. While I question whether this would actually work as intended (the caging is designed to keep a weak human out, and is usually placed around a perimeter out of reach of the robot which could likely break through it), the desire for it is sensible. The caging could also be good for the hazards besides the robots, for example loads falling from significant heights as a result of whatever sort of issue the human is in there to deal with.

You know who else goes in cages? Divers, to protect them from sharks.

aren't these things typical in automated warehouses?

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ww6kc?start=2660 (warning: contains gregg wallace)

Headline makes it sound they have a plan to do it, but they don't. Pure clickbait in the worst way.

I guess I'll just add to the growing pile of "this is to stop humans getting decapitated in robot-only zones when retrieving broken robots" shall I?

I hate amazon as much as the next guy, but this is sensationalist beyond belief.

And old.

Where's the built-in toilet? C'mon Amazon, where's the innovation?!

Looks like the rollcage and windscreens you'd have on any kind of equipment.

I go in my bobcat cage and move dirt. Cages are for safety, ask shark divers.

So... Amazon is inventing Power Loaders from Alien? Neat!

So they came up with putting a cab on a truck?

The article is cheap clickbait.

What that journalist will say about soldiers in tank then?

Daleks!