Dozens of Four-Wheeled Autonomous Robots Are Sorting Mail in Greece

Studies estimate that the AI (artificial intelligence) robot market is expected to reach $21.4 billion by 2026, which sounds about right, as robots are taking over a lot of our tasks these days. Take the Hellenic Post’s sorting center in Athens for instance, where a fleet of small, cute, energetic bots glide tirelessly sorting the mail.

There are 55 of these yellow, four-wheeled AMRs (autonomous mobile robots) and they were brought here to speed up the sorting process. These machines are AI (artificial intelligence)-powered and they have to scan packages, weigh them, and empty the mail into sacks. They can handle packages that are up to 33 lb (15 kg) and their daily limit is 168,000 parcels.

Equipped with rechargeable batteries, the hardworking bots can go on continuously for four hours and they only require five minutes of recharging to get back on their “wheels”.

Turns out that these machines are more efficient than their human colleagues, in fact, they can sort out the mail up to three times faster, according to George Constantopoulos, Hellenic Post CEO, as reported by Reuters. It is probably why they have been put in charge of sorting approximately 80 percent of all parcels in the center.

Constantopoulos stated that the yellow bots shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for human workers, but rather as a useful addition that makes the entire process more efficient. Manually sorting the mail is time-consuming and leads to frequent errors, causing delivery delays for customers, as well as costing the company more money.

Greece’s postal service is not the only one to benefit from the help of AI robots. A fleet of over 2,000 automated robots is also running things in a grocery warehouse in the U.K., where they are in charge of moving boxes with groceries and prepare them for shipping.