Watch How Robots Help Get Your Amazon Packages to You

If you’ve purchased a Christmas gift from Amazon this year, there’s a good chance that a robot built right here in North Reading had a hand in getting it to you.

North Reading-based Kiva Systems’ robots have been helping the online shopping giant this Christmas. The robots come in handy on days like Cyber Monday when customers order hundreds of items per second.

Amazon, which bought the North Reading business for $775 million in 2012, has more than 15,000 robots in its 10 U.S. warehouses. The 320-pound robots are expected to cut operating costs by one-fifth -- and get packages to customers quicker.

>>Watch TIME’s video of the process of how the robots ship the packages by clicking on this sentence or clicking on the below video. >>

The robots, which Amazon said improves efficiency and helps employees, perform much of the merchandise “picking” work. They bring the items to the workers who process the orders.

Amazon said the robots aren’t taking jobs and, in fact, one Amazon fulfillment center has hired more workers since the robots started this year. It’s more about efficiency and getting packages to the customer faster.

Having the robots work to process Amazon orders is also helping Kiva Systems. The North Reading company recently announced it is adding 60 new positions to its Riverside Drive office as part of more than 1,200 new Amazon jobs in Massachusetts.

>>Do you want to see the robots getting in the holiday spirit? Here they are performing “The Nutcracker.”>>