Amazon unveiled Vulcan, its first robotic system equipped with tactile and force-sensing capabilities, at the “Delivering the Future” event in Dortmund, Germany on May 7, 2025. Unlike previous vision-only systems, Vulcan can detect physical contact and measure the force it applies in real time, letting it pick up, move, and stow a wide variety of items without crushing, dropping, or otherwise mangling them.
What Vulcan actually does
Vulcan uses force-feedback sensors to understand what it’s touching. The robot can feel whether it has a solid grip on something, adjust its squeeze in real time, and adapt its approach based on physical feedback rather than just visual cues.
The system uses arms supplied by Universal Robots, the Denmark-based robotics firm that Teradyne acquired in 2015. Those arms, combined with Amazon’s proprietary AI layer, give Vulcan the dexterity to handle approximately 75% of items found in fulfillment centers at speeds on par with human workers.
During initial testing, Vulcan processed over 12,000 customer orders. The system is currently operational at testing sites in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany.
