Robotics & Automation · Recorded milestone

Warehouse robots

Recorded year2006

Kiva Systems' robots carry whole shelves to human pickers, first in permanent use in 2006; Amazon buys Kiva in 2012 and fills its warehouses with them.

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Built on

Automated guided vehicleRecorded · 1953enables
CCD image sensorRecorded · 1969requires
Online retailRecorded · 1995enables
Wi-FiRecorded · 1997enables

Led to

Drone delivery serviceRecorded · 2016enables
Lights-out warehousesRecorded · 2018enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.