How Amazon cut development time of new Blue Jay robot

Amazon has developed the Blue Jay robot, which integrates three key warehouse functions—picking, stowing, and consolidating—into a single robotic system. This consolidation replaces multiple assembly lines with one robot, improving efficiency and saving space while supporting frontline workers. Blue Jay can handle about 75% of the item types stored at Amazon fulfillment centers. Notably, its development was accelerated to just over a year, compared to three or more years for previous robots, thanks to advanced simulation techniques using digital twins and leveraging AI, data, and experience from Amazon’s existing robot fleet. Blue Jay is currently being tested in South Carolina and aims to reduce the physical demands on employees by shifting them toward higher-value tasks like quality control and problem-solving. In addition to Blue Jay, Amazon is deploying Project Eluna, an agentic AI system designed to optimize warehouse operations by analyzing real-time and historical data across facilities. Project Eluna provides natural language insights to help operations teams anticipate bottlenecks, improve sortation,