Who Helped Speed Up Shipments? Meet Peter Wurman

In warehouses worldwide, many operations are increasingly performed through the use of robots. Whenever you shop online, it’s likely that autonomous robots will help workers to quickly and accurately pack your purchases, allowing you to receive your orders faster than ever before.

Behind the technologies that make this possible are inventors like National Inventors Hall of Fame^® Inductee Peter Wurman. Wurman is a co-inventor of the Kiva system, a mobile robotic system for material handling that has transformed warehouse order fulfillment.

Seeking Solutions

Wurman has always enjoyed creating solutions to problems. When he was growing up in Wausau, Wisconsin, he used the money he received for his bar mitzvah to purchase an Apple II computer. At the time, there were no programs available for his computer, so he learned how to program the Apple II himself.

“I definitely enjoy being faced with a problem and having to think of multiple ways to solve it and exploring those avenues until I can figure out a solution,” Wurman said in a conversation with the National Inventors Hall of Fame. “It extends from little things, like when I was a kid playing games, to trying to figure out how to solve Kiva’s big technical problems.”

Studying mechanical engineering, Wurman earned his bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1987. At the University of Michigan, he earned master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and computer science, followed by his doctorate in computer science in 1999. He then became an assistant professor of computer science at North Carolina State University.

In 2002, Wurman was contacted by fellow Hall of Fame Inductee Mick Mountz, his former roommate at MIT. The two began to work together on an idea initiated by Mountz — a mobile robotics solution for warehouses and distribution facilities. The following year, Mountz and Wurman were joined by Inductee Raffaello D’Andrea, who contributed to the project in the areas of systems architecture, robot design, robot navigation and learning-based control algorithms development. Wurman became co-founder and chief technology officer of Kiva Systems and was responsible for the multi-agent system architecture, robot coordination and decision-making algorithms.

Revolutionizing Order Fulfillment

Together, Wurman, Mountz and D’Andrea built the Kiva system by applying their complementary expertise. Wurman explained, “Mick knew the business problem and had the expertise to write the business plan and insights to understand the customer’s needs. I knew the software side, which allowed me to design the software architecture and the algorithms that assign resources efficiently. Raff could lead the robot design and write the control algorithms, so the robots drove straight and lifted shelves reliably.”

The team developed a computer system that wirelessly commanded Kiva’s robots in real time. Rather than relying on a single piece of software, they used software agents that ran independently on the central computer and exchanged information with each other. Within a distribution center, the Kiva system uses mobile robots to lift and move racks of inventory shelves to a shipping station, where a worker selects items for individual shipments, significantly reducing the time required from order placement to shipping.

Amazon acquired Kiva in 2012, and by 2013, it had reduced its “click-to-ship” time from 60 to 75 minutes to just 15 minutes per order. “I think [the acquisition of Kiva] is a big part of their ability to do next-day and even edging into same-day shipping,” observed Wurman.

Reflecting on his career path, Wurman said, “People look at you and see some impressive accomplishments, and it’s easy to forget that all of us started as little kids exploring things we were interested in, having fun and learning about the world. Everyone has the potential to have stories unfold like this, and if we nurture people and give them opportunities at younger ages, these chances will open up across their careers.” To help the next generation realize their potential, Wurman has made personal visits to the Hall of Fame’s Camp Invention^® program, where children build the innovative mindset and skills they need to develop their own solutions to real-world challenges.

Sharing His Story

In this exclusive video created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, you can watch Wurman tell the story of his innovative journey in his own words.

To learn more of our Inductees’ inspiring stories, keep exploring our website.