WEBVTT - Walmart's Shelf Scanning Robots

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<v Speaker 1>Robots roaming the aisles at Walmart. Omrich Demiro. This is

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<v Speaker 1>rich on Tech Daily. Walmart is expanding the use of

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<v Speaker 1>robots at its stores. It's something we're seeing over and

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<v Speaker 1>over with a lot of different companies. We saw a

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<v Speaker 1>robot in action at their Burbank, California store. It's a

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<v Speaker 1>robot from a company called Boston Nova Robotics. They're based

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<v Speaker 1>up in San Francisco, and its job is to roam

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<v Speaker 1>the store and constantly scan the store shelves to look

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<v Speaker 1>for out of stock items. It's also looking for missing

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<v Speaker 1>shelf labels and items that are priced incorrectly. And if

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<v Speaker 1>you look at the robot, it kind of seems like

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<v Speaker 1>a big floor cleaner with kind of a giant tower

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<v Speaker 1>coming out of the top, and it's packed with all

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<v Speaker 1>kinds of cameras and sensors. There's two D, three D

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<v Speaker 1>and LDAR, which is similar to what those self driving

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<v Speaker 1>cars use. And that's important because this robot works its

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<v Speaker 1>way around the store all by itself and yes, when

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<v Speaker 1>customers are present, that is the main thing. This doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>happen overnight when everyone leaves the store. This happens as

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<v Speaker 1>customers are in the store, so it can actually identify

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<v Speaker 1>what's out of stock.

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<v Speaker 2>In near real time. Here's how it works.

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<v Speaker 1>It roams the aisles and it takes photos of every

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<v Speaker 1>shelf and every aisle as it moves along. It takes

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of pictures and it stitches them all together,

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<v Speaker 1>but also has these super bright lights on it, so

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<v Speaker 1>it kind of bathes the store shelves in these bright

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<v Speaker 1>lights so it can see everything properly.

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<v Speaker 2>It's kind of weird.

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<v Speaker 1>It looks like a giant wand going across the shelves. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>all these pictures become giant panoramic pictures that are terabytes

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<v Speaker 1>of data that's sent to computers to be analyzed. And

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<v Speaker 1>the idea here is that basically Walmart can identify which

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<v Speaker 1>items are out of stock and then they kind of check, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>is that item on its way? Do we have more

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<v Speaker 1>on the top shelf or do we have more in

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<v Speaker 1>the back, and then they can restock items faster than ever,

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<v Speaker 1>and they can also get an idea of real time

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<v Speaker 1>stock numbers. They also get a real time idea of

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<v Speaker 1>how much stock they have, and they can also identify

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<v Speaker 1>issues with pricing and labels in near real time as well.

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<v Speaker 1>This all solves several pain points for customers, like how

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<v Speaker 1>annoying is it when you go to a store in

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<v Speaker 1>an item you want is stock. So more retailers are

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<v Speaker 1>letting you check stock online before you go into a store,

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<v Speaker 1>or even reserve items online.

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<v Speaker 2>To pick up.

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<v Speaker 1>So this could really help out with all of that

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<v Speaker 1>in the future. Right now, the robots are part of

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<v Speaker 1>a test pilot, but they can scan an entire store

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<v Speaker 1>in a day, one hundred and fifty thousand items. They

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<v Speaker 1>do a bunch of aisles in an hour, but they

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<v Speaker 1>do need to be recharged after a few hours of work.

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<v Speaker 1>Now there is the big question, is this replacing humans?

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<v Speaker 2>That's the question I always get from folks.

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<v Speaker 1>Walmart, of course says it's not, but they say it's

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<v Speaker 1>helping them now. Usually a human worker has to go

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<v Speaker 1>through and do all of this manually. It's kind of

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<v Speaker 1>a repetitive process. They go through the aisles, they have

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<v Speaker 1>one of those kind of scan guns, they check the stock,

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<v Speaker 1>and they identify the problem areas. But the robot can

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<v Speaker 1>do all of this much more frequently and it's automatic.

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<v Speaker 1>So Walmart says this frees up to humans the associates

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<v Speaker 1>in their stores to bring the stock to the aisles,

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<v Speaker 1>put it on the shelves, fix those pricing issues or

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<v Speaker 1>put those items back in their.

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<v Speaker 2>Place, and also help customers. Now.

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<v Speaker 1>Watching the robot do its work was pretty mesmerizing folks

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<v Speaker 1>in the store that I was seeing.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, they just have people in the stores.

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<v Speaker 1>They were all taking pictures kind of selfies with the robot,

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<v Speaker 1>wondering what it's doing. I think Walmart should put some

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<v Speaker 1>sort of sign somewhere explaining what this robot's doing, because

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<v Speaker 1>lots of people just think it's cleaning the.

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<v Speaker 2>Floors, but it's doing much more.

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<v Speaker 1>Walmart tested this technology in a few stores in Arkansas, Pennsylvania,

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<v Speaker 1>and California. Apparently they liked what the robots were doing enough,

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<v Speaker 1>so they've expanded to fifty stores now, including the location

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<v Speaker 1>we saw in Burbank. There's also locations in Lancaster, Palmdale,

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<v Speaker 1>and Santa Clarita using the robots. That's just in the

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<v Speaker 1>SoCal area, but there's other states as well. If this

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<v Speaker 1>works out and Walmart sees big benefits from these robots,

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<v Speaker 1>this could be a huge rollout. Walmart has over eleven

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<v Speaker 1>thousand stores, and they know the competition is heating up.

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<v Speaker 1>There are so many delivery services out there, like Amazon

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<v Speaker 1>and even Walmart's own in store pickup, which this could

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<v Speaker 1>be a big benefit for Here's the deal.

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<v Speaker 2>The robots know.

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<v Speaker 1>Exactly where everything is in the store, so Walmart could

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<v Speaker 1>use that information to lead customers right to specific products

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<v Speaker 1>faster than ever. They also know when they're in stock.

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<v Speaker 1>Now keep in mind humans have been doing this forever.

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<v Speaker 1>When I worked it off as depot many years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>part of our training was to know where every single

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<v Speaker 1>product in the store was and in what aisle they

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<v Speaker 1>were in. So when a customer asked, hey, where are

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<v Speaker 1>the rubber bands boom, you could tell them which aile

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<v Speaker 1>they were in. So I guess in the future we're

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<v Speaker 1>going to be asking robots where things are.

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<v Speaker 2>I can even see.

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<v Speaker 1>A time in the future when you enter a store,

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<v Speaker 1>you want an item and a little tiny robot leads

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<v Speaker 1>you to the exact product you want.

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<v Speaker 2>Wouldn't that be crazy?

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<v Speaker 1>You can see the video of the Walmart robots in

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<v Speaker 1>action just go to my website rich on tech dot tv.

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<v Speaker 1>If you like this podcast, please rate and review it

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<v Speaker 2>Thanks so much for listening.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm rich Demiro rich on tech dot TV.

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<v Speaker 2>I'll talk to you real soon.