Kiva Systems to be renamed Amazon Robotics

Kiva Systems LLC, the North Reading, Mass.-based maker of robotic warehouse picking technology, will relinquish its name and will now be known as Amazon Robotics, according to published reports.

Amazon.com Inc. acquired Kiva for $775 million in 2012 to improve the automation in its massive fulfillment centers. Kiva's orange-colored robots are like rectangular, rolling car jacks that travel around a distribution center, lift up shelves full of products, and bring them back to a central location where employees select the appropriate items to pick, pack, and stow.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant deployed 15,000 Kiva robots in 10 U.S. warehouses over this past winter holiday shopping season to reduce the time its workers would spend walking the aisles in search of specific products, the Boston Business Journal reported.