Robotics Blog

Robots and Supermarkets

Robotics Online Marketing Team | 11/01/2016

Robots have been making the news lately, but they could also be showing up in your local grocery store before you know it. Thanks to enhanced safety, more compact designs, and more versatile machine vision systems, robots “working” at grocery stores may soon be a common sight for shoppers.

Pilot programs for introducing a robotic workforce to the local grocer have taken two forms:

1) Robots Efficiently Manage Logistics at the Grocery Warehouse

Robots have already proven excellent at managing common tasks in logistics hubs. With sophisticated servo mechanisms, they can safely palletize, de-palletize, transport, and inspect goods. Until recently, however, their capabilities have remained somewhat limited – they require a controlled environment and work best with objects of a definite weight, shape, and size.

Through faster wireless networking and other innovations, however, things are changing quickly.

The British online supermarket Ocado is introducing 1,000 grocery-sorting robots to its warehouse operations. According to Cambridge Consultants, the group that developed the system, it uses “the most densely packed mobile network in the world.”

The robots can sort through hundreds of thousands of crates, responding to real-time changes in inventory levels and demand, from their positions atop large crate stacks. To reduce errors and maximize productivity, the robots receive up to ten commands per second.

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The system is live in Andover, Hampshire, with larger implementations in the works.

2) Robots Show Up Right in the Aisles of Your Local Supermarket

Robots are also performing inventory tracking iin today’s supermarkets. Big box stores already spend thousands of hours a year dealing with manual inventory management – typically, roaming associates use hand-held devices to verify stock levels. That may soon be a thing of the past.

New inventory management robots can scan 15,000 retail items in just an hour, making it possible to check up on the whole inventory of a typical grocery store multiple times a day if needed. The robots can recognize when supplies are low and find items that are shelved incorrectly.

Studies have shown that items out of stock cost retailers as much as $500 billion a year. With robots in charge of time-consuming inventory tasks, human workers can focus on customer service and other high-level issues that contribute to a better experience.

The basic technologies for modern "grocer-bots" are already in place. With enthusiasm for robots higher than ever, 2017 could be the year they become a widespread reality.

To learn more about robotics in the food industry, click here to register for a free webinar.