New Moonwalkers designed to get workers around a warehouse faster
New Moonwalkers designed to get workers around a warehouse faster
Shift Robotics aimed to get folks walking faster back in 2022, with a Kickstarter project for strap-on powered wheels called Moonwalkers. Now the Carnegie Mellon spinoff is launching a business-specific variant called the Moonwalkers X.
Considering my previous comments about these (and the earlier thread as a whole), I'm fairly impressed they've found a use case which has the smooth, level floors needed for this to work well.
That said, given how poorly warehouse workers are treated, this application seems like it will only exacerbate demands upon workers, driving them harder and for longer hours. I'm left wondering why it's the case that warehouses cannot just rearrange their operations so that workers don't have to walk as far, thereby forestalling the need for walking enhancement altogether.
Also new potential injuries. I wonder what OSHA has to say about this? Progress is great, but I do agree that this is pushing the boundary in places when there are probably lots of other areas that could be improved for similar results. The money for this probably came out of a different bucket, to use the business lingo, and I've always hated that accounting excuse...seeing expensive toys being bought for one purpose while workers deal with old and broken crap because their "bucket" budget was strained. From a Fortune 400 company...
Brand new warehouses are probably good for this. What about the warehouse that has been around for 50+ years with cracks and settled concrete everywhere. It's like Google Glass: an innovation with no real world problem to solve.
Put in those human conveyor belts like they have at airports.
Moonwalkers
Moonwalking is a Micheal Jackson dance move. These are roller skates.
Wow, someone found a semipractical use for these!
Each one will be conveniently engraved with the number of a local workers' compensation lawyer.
Nah, they'll have a number for corporate arbitration with a warning that tries to scare people away from litigation.
So... Fisher-Price skates, but more expensive.
Drew Gooden did a pretty entertaining review of the moonwalkers: https://youtu.be/_9Z05Ik5r2U
Walk faster, human robot
A solution in search of a problem...