Walmart shelves robots on duty

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Walmart recently deployed a shelf robot in some of its California stores, which scanned the shelves every 90 seconds, 50 percent more efficiently than a human.

Shelf robot. JPG

 

The shelving robot is six feet tall and has a transmitter tower mounted with a camera.The camera is used to scan aisles, check inventory and identify missing and misplaced items, mislabeled prices and labels. The robot then relays this data to store employees, who use it to restock shelves or correct errors.

 

Tests have shown that the robot can travel at 7.9 inches per second (about 0.45 miles per hour) and scan shelves every 90 seconds.They work 50 percent more efficiently than human employees, scan shelves more accurately, and scan three times faster.

 

Bossa Nova, the inventor of the Shelf Robot, pointed out that the robot’s acquisition system is very similar to that of a self-driving car. It uses lidar, sensors and cameras to capture images and collect data.In autonomous vehicles, lidar, sensors and cameras are used to “see” the environment and navigate accurately.

 

But Wal-Mart executives said the idea of using robots to automate retail isn’t new, and shelf robots won’t replace workers or affect the number of workers in stores.

 

Rival Amazon uses small Kiva robots in its warehouses to handle product picking and packaging, saving nearly 20 percent in operating costs.For Wal-Mart, the move is also a step toward going digital and speeding up the shopping process.

 

 

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Post time: Jan-20-2021