Amazon has halted its Blue Jay warehouse robotics program only months after introducing the system, according to reports by Business Insider and confirmation to TechCrunch. The move underscores that not all of the company’s automation experiments advance beyond the testing phase.
Blue Jay, a multi-armed robot developed to sort and move packages, was unveiled in October for deployment in same-day delivery facilities. Amazon had been testing the system at a site in South Carolina and said at the time that development took roughly one year, a pace the company attributed to advances in artificial intelligence.
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An Amazon spokesperson said the project had been launched as a prototype and that its underlying technology would be integrated into other robotics initiatives. Employees who worked on Blue Jay are being reassigned to different programs within the company.
The decision comes as Amazon continues to scale its warehouse automation efforts. Last year, the company introduced the Vulcan robot, a two-armed system used in storage compartments to rearrange and retrieve items with the aid of cameras and suction tools. The robot was designed to improve efficiency in item handling.
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Amazon has invested heavily in robotics since acquiring Kiva Systems in 2012, a deal that laid the groundwork for its automated fulfillment network. The company said it surpassed one million robots operating in its warehouses last July, highlighting the scale of its ongoing automation strategy despite the cancellation of individual projects.