Technologies

Amazon Unveils AI-Using Warehouse Robot With Human-Like Sense of Touch

Amazon’s new Vulcan robot uses physical AI to carefully stow and pick everything from socks to fragile electronics at fulfillment centers.

Amazon’s new Vulcan fulfillment center robot doesn’t look humanoid, but it has some very human characteristics, like the ability to «feel» the items it’s handling.

Amazon introduced Vulcan at its Delivering the Future event in Germany on May 7.

«Built on key advances in robotics, engineering, and physical AI, Vulcan is our first robot with a sense of touch,» the company said in a statement. The event is a showcase for Amazon’s technology innovations.

Vulcan can stow or pick items from the fabric-covered pods Amazon uses for inventory storage. It has a human–like finesse when handling objects. Force feedback sensors help the robot avoid damaging the merchandise.

A suction cup and camera system comes into play when Vulcan is pulling items out of bins.

«While the suction cup grabs it, the camera watches to make sure it took the right thing and only the right thing, avoiding what our engineers call the risk of ‘co-extracting non-target items,'» Amazon said.

Vulcan is in place at fulfillment centers in Spokane, Wash. and Hamburg, Germany. It’s primarily tasked with reaching items stored low that require a human to bend down, or items stored up high that require an employee to use a stepladder.

The rise of robots in traditionally human-powered workplaces can be a sensitive subject. Amazon makes it clear it sees Vulcan as an assistant to its employees rather than a replacement for them.

Vulcan can handle 75% of the types of items stocked at the fulfillment centers. It’s designed to know which ones it can move and which ones it needs to ask for human help for — like a robot-human tag team.

The robot uses a physical AI system that includes «algorithms for identifying which items Vulcan can or can’t handle, finding space within bins, identifying tubes of toothpaste and boxes of paper clips and much more.» The AI was trained on everything from socks to electronics and continues to learn as the robot works.

Humans and robots can effectively coexist in distribution centers, said logistics and operations researchers Rene de Koster of Erasmus University in the Netherlands and Debjit Roy of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

«Right now, at least, distribution center automation with people in the mix is often a more efficient, flexible and cost-effective bet than a completely automated center,» the team said last year in a summary of their research for the Harvard Business Review.

Robots have long been part of Amazon’s operations with over 750,000 robots deployed in its fulfillment centers, the company said.

Vulcan will roll out to more centers in Europe and the US over the next couple of years, increasing the chances of your future Amazon shipments having Vulcan’s unseen «fingerprints» on them.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Nov. 1

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 1.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the big Saturday version, so it could take some time. Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Ethically sourced, as some egg
Answer: CAGEFREE

9A clue: Residents of Tehran
Answer: IRANIANS

10A clue: Air sign?
Answer: SKYWRITE

11A clue: ___ Faire (medieval-themed festival, informally)
Answer: REN

12A clue: Athlete from Cleveland or the University of Virginia
Answer: CAVALIER

17A clue: Kind of bathing suit
Answer: ONEPIECE

18A clue: Musical whizzes
Answer: MAESTROS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Certain gender identity
Answer: CIS

2D clue: Holy object sought in the first «Indiana Jones» movie
Answer: ARK

3D clue: ___ pride
Answer: GAY

4D clue: Completely surrounds
Answer: ENWRAPS

5D clue: Like a cozy campsite on a cool autumn night, say
Answer: FIRELIT

6D clue: Washington’s Mount ___, the highest peak in the Cascades
Answer: RAINIER

7D clue: Sinus-treating doctor, for short
Answer: ENT

8D clue: Opposite of WNW
Answer: ESE

12D clue: _ _ _mon URL ending
Answer: COM

13D clue: De Armas who starred in 2025’s «Ballerina»
Answer: ANA

14D clue: Shape of flying geese
Answer: VEE

15D clue: Prefix with friendly
Answer: ECO

16D clue: Restaurant booking, informally
Answer: RES

Technologies

Kim Kardashian Denies the Moon Landing and NASA Corrects Her Publicly

It’s one reality TV actor versus another, as Real World alum and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy tells Kardashian she’s wrong.

NASA says we’ve been to the moon six times. Kim Kardashian says the first time was faked. On a recent episode of The Kardashians, the reality-show star was chatting with actress Sarah Paulson about astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. That’s when Kardashian revealed she doesn’t believe the 1969 moon landing is real.

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In an interview, Aldrin was asked about the scariest moment of the Apollo 11 mission. Kardashian quotes his reply, «There was no scary moment because it didn’t happen. It could’ve been scary, but it wasn’t because it didn’t happen.»

It’s unclear which interview this was, or what exactly Aldrin was referring to, although it seems like he’s saying a certain frightening moment didn’t come to pass. But Kardashian took the quote to mean the entire moon landing was a hoax that Aldrin chose to reveal via that one quote.

«So I think (the moon landing) didn’t happen,» she said.

NASA acting administrator (and former participant on reality show The Real World) Sean Duffy took exception to the sentiment, replying on X «Yes, Kim Kardashian, we’ve been to the moon before…6 times!»

Yes, @KimKardashian, we’ve been to the Moon before… 6 times!
And even better: @NASAArtemis is going back under the leadership of @POTUS.
We won the last space race and we will win this one too 🇺🇸🚀
🎥: Hulu pic.twitter.com/CkexEEPFSv

— NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy (@SecDuffyNASA) October 30, 2025

The US did in fact land on the moon on July 20, 1969, with Aldrin and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong both walking on the lunar surface. Armstrong died in 2012. Aldrin is now 95.

In 2002, Aldrin, then 72, punched a conspiracy theorist who tried to get him to swear the moon landings was faked.

«We won the last space race and we will win this one too!» Duffy told Kardashian on X. He later invited her to an upcoming launch at Kennedy Space Center, though she did not immediately accept.

Kardashian did not respond to a request for comment.