DAYTONA BEACH — Those expecting something out of “Star Wars” when Amazon opens its massive five-story 2.8 million-square-foot robotic fulfillment center here this fall will be slightly disappointed.
A recent tour of the e-commerce giant’s robotic fulfillment center in Orlando found plenty of robots, but none that walk and talk or go “beep.” Instead, it mostly uses robots resembling Roomba vacuum cleaners.
But make no mistake: Amazon is counting on those robots to significantly speed its delivery times. It recently deployed its 1 millionth robot, and not because they’re cool. It sees providing more same- and next-day deliveries — even in rural communities and smaller metro areas such as Daytona Beach — as key to its strategy for enticing consumers to buy even more stuff from the world’s biggest online retailer…