Amazon.com Inc.
06/04/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/04/2026 03:40
Amazon unveils next-gen Proteus robot as part of €10 billion European investment in its fulfillment network
Key takeaways
- Amazon's next-generation autonomous Proteus uses natural language commands to take on more tasks across its operations.
- Vulcan, Amazon's first robot with a sense of touch, and STARK, a collaborative robotic tote-handling system, are expanding to more European sites.
- This is part of a plan to invest over €10 billion in European fulfillment centers and grow the workforce by 25,000 over the coming years.
Amazon introduced the next-generation Proteus at its Delivering the Future event in London today. The new technology builds on the original autonomous robot and expands what's possible in scope, capability, and how it can assist employees with their daily tasks.
Employees will now be able to direct Proteus in the same way they'd communicate with a colleague-using plain, conversational language, with no technical commands and no programming interface. An employee tells it what needs to be done, and the robot takes care of the rest.
Proteus is designed to handle physically demanding tasks so employees can focus on higher-skilled work.
Like its predecessor, this Proteus is designed to take on physically demanding tasks-moving heavy carts and covering long distances-so employees can focus on higher-skilled work like managing inventory flow and ensuring quality control.
These new technologies are part of Amazon's plans to invest over €10 billion over the next few years to expand and modernize its fulfillment operations in Europe. This also includes the expansion of Vulcan, Amazon's first robot with a sense of touch.
As part of this investment, Amazon plans to grow its European fulfillment center workforce by 25,000 in the coming years, creating new jobs across the region.
How does the new Proteus work?
The original Proteus operates in dock areas within fulfillment centers, navigating safely around people and transporting heavy carts that can weigh close to 400 kilograms-work that requires employees to push carts, lift heavy items, and cover long distances during a shift. It's currently deployed at 25 fulfillment centers in the United States.
The next generation of Proteus can work anywhere items need to be moved across fulfillment centers and delivery sites.
The next generation of Proteus is designed to go much further. Rather than operating only in dock areas, the new system can work anywhere items need to be moved. This includes transporting containers as they arrive at a site, transferring them between workstations, and assisting employees across Amazon's fulfillment centers and delivery sites.
There is also a major shift in how employees interact with it. Using advances in AI, the next generation of Proteus is designed to understand natural language. That means employees can assign it tasks the way they'd communicate with a colleague.
The next-generation Proteus robot can now operate anywhere across Amazon fulfillment sites, taking direction from employees through conversational prompts.
"You tell it what needs to be done. It figures out the priority, the route, the timing," said Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics. "It becomes your assistant for material movement."
The system is designed to handle the heavy lifting and help support site safety. It's currently being piloted in Amazon's labs, with deployment in Europe planned for the first half of 2027.
Amazon's Proteus robot handles heavy lifting to support safety at a fulfillment center.
What else is Amazon building in robotics?
The expansion of Proteus is one piece of a broader robotics roadmap. Alongside advancements in mobile robots, Amazon is also developing new collaborative technology and robotic manipulation-the ability to handle individual objects with precision.
STARK is Amazon's collaborative robotic tote-handling system, designed to handle individual objects with precision.
This includes STARK, a new collaborative robotic tote-handling system. Born from an operations employee's idea to improve a process and support site safety, STARK works side by side with employees, picking full totes from conveyors and placing them on carts-work that otherwise requires repetitive heavy lifting. First piloted in Barcelona, Spain, STARK is planned to expand to 15 sites across Europe by 2027.
Vulcan is another key innovation that will support a growing number of sites. As Amazon's first robotic system with a sense of touch, Vulcan can see and feel objects simultaneously to navigate densely packed environments. Originally developed for a facility in Spokane, Washington, Vulcan has expanded to handle more complex picking tasks at Amazon's Hamburg facility in Germany.
Amazon's Vulcan robot, the company's first robotic system with a sense of touch.
"This transformation is designed to deliver a step-change in how we support our employees and serve our customers," said Armin Cossmann, vice president of operations for Europe. "Customer expectations aren't slowing down-and neither are we."
Vulcan uses sensors to pick and stow items at fulfillment centers.
How is Amazon creating new jobs alongside these technologies?
As part of these investments, Amazon plans to grow its European fulfillment center workforce by 25,000 in the coming years. Since introducing robotics into its operations, Amazon has hired hundreds of thousands of employees globally and created new categories of jobs including reliability, maintenance, and engineering roles.
"Europe is at the center of how we're building our operations for the future," Dresser said. "The investment we're making here, the talent we're building with here, the technology we're deploying here-this is where the next chapter of operations innovation is being written."
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