Amazon Unveils a Next-Generation Proteus Robot That Takes Plain-Language Commands, Anchoring a More Than €10 Billion European Push
Amazon's new Proteus understands conversational commands and works beyond loading docks, debuting in London alongside a more than €10 billion European fulfillment investment.
Overview
Amazon has introduced the next generation of its Proteus autonomous mobile robot, which the company says can now understand natural-language commands, allowing it to take on more tasks, according to The Robot Report. The robot was unveiled at Amazon’s Delivering the Future event in London, as reported by Gizmodo, and the launch was paired with a pledge to invest more than €10 billion ($11.6 billion) in modernizing and expanding the company’s fulfillment operations in Europe over the next few years, per The Robot Report.
What We Know
The defining change in the new Proteus is how workers interact with it. According to Amazon, 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. Gizmodo describes the same shift: instead of using technical commands or a programming interface, workers will be able to assign Proteus tasks in plain conversational language.
Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics, framed the change in terms of delegation. “You tell it what needs to be done. It figures out the priority, the route, the timing. It becomes your assistant for material movement,” Dresser said, as quoted by The Robot Report.
The new system also expands where Proteus can operate. Rather than operating only in dock areas, the new system can work anywhere items need to be moved, including transporting containers as they arrive at a site, transferring them between workstations, and assisting employees across Amazon’s fulfillment centers and delivery sites, according to Amazon. Earlier versions of the robot were designed to move carts weighing nearly 400 kilograms (about 882 pounds), as reported by Gizmodo.
The upgraded robot is not yet broadly deployed. It is currently being piloted in Amazon’s labs, with deployment in Europe planned for the first half of 2027, according to Amazon. The existing generation of Proteus is already in service at more than two dozen e-commerce fulfillment centers across the United States, per The Robot Report.
Proteus is one piece of a larger automated fleet. Even as it has deployed more than 1 million robots, Amazon said it has hired hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, according to The Robot Report. The London announcement also covered other systems: Amazon plans to deploy STARK, its tote-handling robot, in 15 sites across Europe by 2027, while its tactile-sensing Vulcan robot is now handling more complex picking tasks at an Amazon facility in Hamburg, Germany, per The Robot Report.
What We Don’t Know
Amazon has not detailed how many of the next-generation Proteus units it intends to build, nor which European facilities will receive them first beyond the broad 2027 timeline cited by Amazon. The exact count of U.S. fulfillment centers running the current Proteus is reported slightly differently across outlets, with Tech Startups placing it at 25 facilities and The Robot Report at 24. The company also has not disclosed how the conversational interface performs in live, high-throughput warehouse conditions versus the controlled lab pilots now underway.