Walmart has been using autonomous robots in its store to automate some menial tasks. These robots, which are six feet tall, spot shelving errors and take stock on items. You can see these in play in four states across the U.S. Including California of course. But what do they actually contribute to Walmart?
Well, in addition to taking inventory on the shelf, it also recognizes pricing errors. It also notices when customers put things in the wrong places, and wrong labels on items. The robot continuously alerts human employees of these mistakes and discrepancies.
Over the small amount of time that the robots have been in play, the human employees have taken a shine to the dutiful rovers. In some places, they have gone so far as to name them. It’s safe to say that the human employees are quite emphatic about their positive attitude towards the helper robots.
They have Bossa Nova Robotics to thank for that. Walmart has been working with Bossa Nova Robotics to implement their robot program. In fact, the company states that if these robots were self driving cars, they would operate at level 5 autonomy. That’s a bold statement.
Level 5 autonomy is attained when the vehicle, or in this case the robot, can do its task without any human intervention. It also states that the robot be able to perform them at equal or higher efficiency than their human counterparts. And last but not least, it should be able to perform in any scenario that may occur.
From what we can tell, most of these checks are ticked. It can stop if a person is looking at an item in the aisle, and wait till the coast is clear. It can recognize shopping carts or objects in the way and steer clear of them. So it’s pretty much safe to say that these things are here to stay.