
Filling the void left by Kiva’s 2012 acquisition by Amazon - robofenix
http://robohub.org/filling-the-void-left-by-kivas-2012-acquisition-by-amazon/
======
duaneb
Note: the title should say "Kiva Systems", the microfinance 501 org "Kiva" was
not purchased by amazon.

~~~
nissehulth
Thank you, I felt really confused when I saw the title but as usual, I read
comments here before clicking the link.

------
pj_mukh
Biased here! But the only option on their list of alternatives that are drop-
in replacements for the Kiva System with great updates for next-gen system
seems like Otto
([http://www.ottomotors.com/vehicles](http://www.ottomotors.com/vehicles)).
Great improvement by removing the need for infrastructure changes (all
cartography is onboard and centrally maintained).

~~~
bradleypowers
That's not strictly true. The Locus system isn't a Kiva drop-in, it's a next-
gen system as well.

~~~
pj_mukh
Locus seems to be missing the big heavy lifter that Otto has?

~~~
bradleypowers
They're just targeting different markets. Otto is largely targeting
manufacturing, Locus is targeting e-commerce and fulfillment more. The
morphology of the robots follows from that.

------
idp
RoboCV ([http://robocv.com/](http://robocv.com/)), a pretty good Russian
company is missing from the list. These are the same guys who were
participants of Google Lunar X Prize but aborted midway due to lack of
funding.

------
pbreit
Amazon also got some cool robotic know-how when it acquired Quidsi (aka
Diapers.com, Soap.com, etc):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6NK0zexl4s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6NK0zexl4s)

~~~
crivabene
Interestingly, the video you posted basically explains how they're using Kiva
robots.

