While Walmart plans to experiment with some kinds of robots and automated tech, it will no longer use robots to scan shelves and track inventory as people can do the job better without affecting other workers and customers.

Show full article

Miso Robotics (makers of Flippy, the burger-flipping robot chef) is making the latest iteration of Flippy available commercially across the globe. Flippy can now cook 19 different items — anything from corn dogs to chicken tenders — and that number will expand now that the robot is trainable via an upgraded machine learning system. In addition, the proprietary ChefUI software will assist kitchen workers with operational interactions and workflow.

Show full article

Sam’s Club is adding another 372 Tennant’s T7AMR scrubbers in 2020, bringing the technology to all 599 U.S. stores. The mopping robots will also check on shelving inventory.

Show full article

Storelift, a French startup, announced the launch of its first two ‘Boxy’ stores, which are repurposed shipping containers that can be plopped down in various urban neighborhoods that lack good shopping options. The cashierless Boxy stores use the same AI and computer vision tools that Amazon Go stores use.

Show full article

Walmart has launched a pilot drone delivery program in Fayetteville, North Carolina in partnership with drone company Flytrex. The initial plan is to use drones to deliver grocery and household items. Flytrex has been around since 2013, and caters to people living in suburban areas. Its drones fly at 32 mph, have a cruising height of 230 feet, and can carry up to 6.6 pounds. The company has been working with Icelandic retailer AHA since 2018, delivering groceries to peoples’ backyards in Reykjavik.

Show full article

In 2021, Zipline will begin making on-demand drone deliveries for Walmart in Northwest Arkansas for select health and wellness products.

Show full article

Two major convenience store franchises in Japan are testing robots for stocking shelves. The 7’ remotely-controlled robot (‘Model-T’), which has 2 hands, each with 3 fingers, was developed by Japanese startup Telexistence.

Show full article

Piestro, which is currently raising money via crowdfunding site StartEngine, is producing a standalone, fully integrated cooking system and dispenser, creating an automated pizzeria that combines fresh ingredients and custom recipes to build what are claimed to be high-quality pizzas.

Show full article

Amazon.com Inc on Monday is set to announce a new business line selling the technology behind its cashier-less convenience stores to other retailers.

Show full article

On March 3rd, Amazon is opening its first “Amazon Go Grocery” 7,700 sq. ft store in Seattle, There are no cashiers or checkout lines, and customers are automatically charged for their shopping using their Amazon card, which is required on entry.

Show full article

Virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D printing are converging with AI, drones, and 5G to transform shopping on every dimension. Shopping is becoming virtual and customized, with fast delivery and lower costs. All shopping will be done at home with the help of a virtual assistant. This will be a top-to-bottom transformation of the retail world. The article contains an example of shopping for a dress in 2029.

Show full article

A review of the use of robots in the retail industry, as of December 2019. this includes stocking shelves, serving customers, and delivering products to our doorstep.

Show full article

LG Electronics has deployed a robot that can make and serve noodles at a family restaurant in Seoul. Customers will hand over a bowl with selected ingredients to the robot (Chefbot), which will prepare noodles and gravy in about a minute.

Show full article

Italian luxury furniture brand Natuzzi allows New York and London shoppers to digitally browse their catalogue, by superimposing holograms of furniture onto 3D versions of their living room, using a HoloLens 2 headset.

Show full article

Softbank Robotics is developing a Tokyo cafe that will be run by its humanoid robot Pepper. Pepper Parlor will use both human and robot staff, and is set to open in December 2020. Pepper was developed for SoftBank by Aldebaran, a French robotics company specializing in emotionally intelligent humanoids that can function in unstructured environments like homes, shops, and specialized care facilities.

Show full article

Walmart China has launched a blockchain-based platform aimed to address food safety concerns in China, including 23 product lines tested and listed, with another 100 planned by the end of 2019.

Show full article

Boxbot, a California delivery logistics startup, unveiled its autonomous last-mile delivery system: An automated local hub where packages are received, sorted, and prepped for delivery, along with a fleet of street-based driverless vehicles.

Show full article

Later in 2019, Nuro’s robot will start delivering Domino’s pies and cheesy breads to customers in the Houston area. The R2 vehicle is about half the size of a sedan and is made exclusively for carrying goods. Customers will be issued a code to enter into a screen on the bot that opens one of its two compartments.

Show full article

Amazon has installed $1+ million robots in its facilities that can pack 6-700 boxes/hour, and wrap packages inside custom-assembled boxes, operating at 4-5 times a worker’s rate. The robots may be installed at dozens of warehouses, eliminating about 24 positions/warehouse.

Show full article

By harnessing networks of tiny automated hubs, micro-fulfillment could enable retailers to store their goods in the hearts of cities while still benefiting from the efficiency of automation. CommonSense Robotics has achieved its first 1-hour fulfillment delivery in partnership with an Israeli health and beauty retailer.

Show full article

Walmart is adding >3,900 robots in stores to help monitor inventory, clean floors and unload trucks, including 1,500 new autonomous floor cleaners, 300 additional shelf scanners, 1,200 unloaders and 900 new pickup towers.

Show full article

Alphabet’s drone division, Wing, has launched its first public delivery service for about 100 homes in Canberra, Australia, processing orders for food and medication from 12 local businesses to be delivered by drone in minutes. Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority granted regulatory approval after an 18-month trial involving 3,000 deliveries.

Show full article

IBM continues to expand the blockchain-based Food Trust network to improve the way food is traced from farm to grocery store, with Albertsons Companies piloting food safety measures in its 2,300 stores across the US,

Show full article

The Paris-based 100-year-old International Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Singapore-based blockchain startup Perlin to improve supply chain processes for its 45 million members (from 130 countries), making the processes more traceable and transparent.

Show full article

A Coresight Research report found 5,994 store closings announced in 1Q2019, compared with 5,864 in all of 2018. Some retailers, including Fred’s and Family Dollar, are closing select stores in a bid to stay profitable, while chains like Payless have announced they are shuttering all of their stores.

Show full article

Walmart unveiled a “store of the future” in Levittown, NY for testing emerging technologies, including AI-enabled ceiling-mounted cameras and interactive displays. The store has 50,000 sq. ft retail space, is staffed by 100+ employees, and offers 30,000+ items. The store has traditional checkout stations, and the cameras monitor inventory levels, determining replenishment or replacement needs.

Show full article

The beauty AI startup ‘lululab’ unveiled its AI Beauty Store, an unmanned virtual store in Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping mall. The service offered includes self-skin analysis using a single selfie with a multispectral camera, recommended products, and an outcome report.

Show full article

This summer, FedEx Corp plans to test a robot to handle home deliveries for partners ranging from Walmart Inc to Pizza Hut. The battery-powered robot will look like a cooler on wheels, and be developed by DEKA Development & Research Corp, travelling at a top speed of 10 mph.

Show full article

Colorado-based startup Valyant AI announced the launch of a voice-based AI customer service platform, which is now taking customer orders at the drive-thru at Denver’s Good Times Burgers and Frozen Custard.

Show full article

British retail giants saw Christmas sales lowest since 2008, amidst 93,000 UK retail jobs lost in 2018. Marks and Spencers is closing 100 stores.

Show full article

Tesla is launching its $35,000 Model 3, but to meet its target price, the company is closing all of its 378 stores worldwide, laying off retail employees and shifting all sales online. (NRA: This is the future of all automotive sales.)

Show full article

Pensa is a New York company that makes an autonomous mobile perception system to track inventory in stores. Pensa uses drones which are faster, quieter and less obtrusive than ground robots.

Show full article

US GIANT/MARTIN’S and Stop & Shop grocery stores will deploy nearly 500 autonomous robots after successful pilot runs that improved store safety and efficiency. The robots identify safety hazards such as liquid, powder, and bulk food spills, and then apply corrective actions.

Show full article

Postmates, the logistics firm, has unveiled a robot (‘Serve’) that will deliver groceries/lunch in Los Angeles. Serve, which looks like a lunchbox on wheels, will travel along sidewalks at walking speed, carrying up to 50 lbs. Serve travel most of the way in a Postmates car before taking the delivery to the customer’s door. 

Show full article

UK’s Ocada Technology operates an automated grocery order fulfillment center that uses over 1,000 made-in-Britain robots to pick a 50-item order in 5 mins from a 50,000 menu of items. The battery-operated, orchestrated robots move, at 18 mph, on a vast grid, where each location contains a stack of storage bins. Bins are brought to pick stations to fulfill a customer order. (Watch the video above.)

Show full article

The Cyberdog in Prague features a robotic bartender who serves drinks ordered through a phone app. Its red robotic arm picks among seven wines on offer in a cool box. It then opens the bottle and pours up to four glasses at a time. Next it lifts the glasses on a tray that travels overhead to the customers’ table, then lowers the load so people can pick up their glasses.

Show full article

A review of the use of robots in food preparation.

Show full article

Creator, a new restaurant in San Francisco, uses two family-car-sized robots, churning out 120 burgers/hour. They grind meat, shape burgers, slice tomatoes, grate cheese, and dispense mustard. Each burger can be customized with different sauces, cheeses and toppings, and is precision grilled. Each robot has 350 sensors, 50 actuators, and 20 computers.

Show full article

Use of robots in distribution and order fulfillment centres, retail stores, and customer delivery. Companies say automation will lead to new jobs, but critics worry about phased-out humans. Quote “This robot can do in about 2.5 hours what it was taking an associate around 2 weeks …”

Show full article

Amazon plans to open <3,000 Go stores by 2021. Alipay in China has released "pay-with-a-smile" facial payment. Retail specialists predict biometric payment systems will be used regularly by 2.6B people globally by 2023. Show full article

Customers can browse the cars (Ford or other makes) stored in the massive vending machine via their smartphones, make their purchase, and have the vehicle delivered at ground level – or qualify for a 3-day test drive.

Show full article

The Kroger Co. and UK online supermarket Ocado announced an exclusive partnership agreement in the United States that will accelerate Kroger’s creation of a seamless shopping experience for America’s families.

Show full article

7-Eleven is piloting cashier-less payments in 14 Dallas stores, and will expand to more cities in 2019.

Show full article

Amazon staffing for the holidays is 20,000 less than for 2017. This may be due to increased automation in its warehouses, where a robot can handle in 15 minutes the sorting, picking, packing, and shipping that used to take human workers an hour or more to complete.

Show full article

Venture capitalists are funding start-ups that offer shared kitchens, storage facilities, and pickup counters for established chains and new food entrepreneurs. This creates major reductions in overhead costs, and allows for fast implementation of new concepts in fast food and casual dining.

Show full article

Amazon’s 7th cashierless convenience store is going to be located inside a shopping and office complex across from the World Trade Center in New York. The store will likely offer prepared foods, such as sandwiches and salads, alongside a small selection of packaged groceries, like soups and condiments.

Show full article

Amazon may open up to 3,000 AmazonGo cashierless convenience stores in the next 3 years, offering fresh prepared foods with or without a limited grocery selection.

Show full article

A San Francisco startup has launched a small public demo that will grow into a 500 sq.ft. AI-driven convenience store in the coming months – Amazon Go’s first rival store.

Show full article

Clothing design is one way AI is transforming the fashion and retail industries. Companies also routinely use AI to decide which clothes to stock and what to recommend to customers.

Show full article

Popular, even gourmet restaurants in expensive San Francisco can no longer find or afford servers. Clients scout their own table, order on-line, get their own water glass or wine, and silverware. Runners bring your order to the table, but there are no servers to wait on you.

Show full article

Food industry jobs are increasingly being replaced by automation, starting with cashiers. McDonald’s plans to add mobile ordering and kiosks to 7-8,000 stores in the next 2 years. Food preparation is also being automated: Robots making pizza and ice cream; Self-cleaning robotic cooking pots; Food dispensed through automated machine.

Show full article

The primary issue for greater than 50,000 Culinary and Bartenders Union members is protection against robot replacements. They have voted to strike to secure their jobs. The culinary and hospitality industries are primary targets for automation in coming years.

Show full article

Amazon’s buyers have been replaced by algorithms, which take in thousands of inputs and are always running, and are smarter than any human. This started with automating product ordering and inventory-tracking, but now includes negotiating with major brands.

Show full article

Creator, a new San Francisco restaurant, uses a robot to slice buns, add condiments, prepare and add fresh toppings, grill the meat, creating a fully prepared hamburger–all without any human intervention.

Show full article

Ocado, a British online-only supermarket, has created a warehouse, involving a hive-grid-machine with over one thousand robots, each the size and shape of a washing machine, that lift, move, and sort groceries. The operation will process 3.5 million items or around 65,000 orders every week.

Show full article

Goodr has created a system that has diverted nearly a million pounds of food in Atlanta from landfills–and into kitchens. Surplus food is redirected from businesses to nonprofits which share it with needy families. Goodr’s app has clients signalling the availability of surplus food, which is picked up, packaged, and delivered to nonprofits, with all steps recorded on a blockchain.

Show full article

The 11 jobs are Bellhop, Barista, Pizza delivery driver, Line cook, Security guard, Lifeguard, Cashier, Host, Landscaping, Pizza chef, and (a stretch) dogwalker.

Show full article

On Wednesday, Target rolled out augmented reality (AR) and digital chat services to help customers more easily shop for cosmetics online and in stores. customers can virtually try on hundreds of makeup items, including lipstick, blush, and false lashes. This mirrors services offered by beauty giant Sephora.

Show full article

After testing Amazon Go stores in Seattle, nationwide expansion is planned, starting with Chicago and San Francisco. In an Amazon Go store, customers walk in, scan an Amazon Go app, shop and leave. Amazon charges your account, and sends a receipt when you leave the store—no checkout line needed. The technology ‘Just Walk Out’ taps computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning tools to determine which items a customer put in their cart, and make the right charges.

Show full article

IBM is collaborating with international jewelry industry leaders to create a cross-industry supply chain tracking platform. Powered by a permissioned blockchain, the initiative will facilitate the tracking of diamonds and precious metals as they advance from mine to market.

Show full article

Farmer’s Fridge offers conveniently-accessed fresh, wholesome meals in over 100 unmanned fresh food vending units across the Chicago and Milwaukee metro regions. The units are maintained by the company, which monitors and restocks them daily, with any unsold product donated to community members in need. Selections include salads, sandwiches, bowl meals, and snacks – with everything scratch-made using seasonal ingredients from local partners whenever possible.

Show full article

By December 2018, Walmart will have added 500 Pickup Towers to the 200 used in a pilot project in late 2017. The Towers are colossal structures within Walmart stores, allowing online buyers to pick up goods bought from the company’s website, just by scanning a barcode. 40% of the US population will have access to the towers by the end of the year.

Show full article

Walmart has filed a host of patents, including a sensing device to make shopping carts smart and communicate with mobile devices; Tracking users through wearables; Drones that would assist customers shopping in-store with price verification and product location; and a method for detecting items placed in a container.

Show full article

The Kang Nam Tofu House in Milpitas, California, is the first in the world to use a robot to bring food and bills to tables, acting as an assistant to, rather than replacing, human servers, and allowing them to focus more on customer service, Penny is a small, pedestal-shaped robot designed to navigate in a restaurant’s crowded, narrow spaces, using sensors to avoid any obstacles. After all table and kitchen locations are programmed in, the robot makes a map of the restaurant.

Show full article

Miso Robotics, a creator of a burger flipping robot named Flippy, announced $10 million in Series B financing. The size of the $3 trillion global prepared foods industry, coupled with rising minimum wages, has prompted a rush to create automation solutions in fast food. Flippy is a lightweight industrial robotic arm with a spatula for an end effector and is now just flipping burgers. But its AI can learn to adjust cooking duration, and ensure perfect production. A robot costs about $60,000, and will soon do more, like toasting buns and grilling onions.

Show full article

A shop robot named Fabio was recently fired from an Edinburgh supermarket, Margiotta, after failing to perform in a helpful manner and confusing some customers. The robot was unable to assist customers in finding the products they were looking for, and many customers ended up going out of their way to avoid it. Fabio was a custom version of SoftBank’s Pepper robot, programmed by Heriot-Watt University to be able to find certain product SKUs in the store.

Show full article

Amazon is launching an AR View feature inside its iOS shopping app that previews “thousands” of products in 3D, ranging from kitchen appliances to toys to electronics.

Show full article

3D-printed food offers intricate designs, automated cooking, mass manufacturing, and personalized meals. A 3D food printer, able to print and cook your favorite meal with a single touch of a screen, will be available in the next few years. Natural Machines launched Foodini as a B2B product in 2014, the first 3D food printer to make both savory and sweet foods with fresh ingredients. Netherlands-based ByFlow has specialized in 3D-printing since 2009. Its portable “Focus” 3D food printer is also a B2B product, optimized for desserts. BeeHex’s Chef 3D can print a 12-inch pizza in less than five minutes, which it plans to market to high volume pizza chains.

Show full article

Amazon is experimenting with a new delivery service intended to make more products available for free two-day delivery and to relieve overcrowding in its warehouses. Amazon will oversee pickup of packages from warehouses of third-party merchants selling goods on Amazon.com and their delivery to customers’ homes – work that is now often handled by UPS and FedEx.

Show full article

Five examples of automated stores:
1. Mobile, automatic grocery.stores in Shanghai, using self-driving electric vehicles that come to you, mobile payments, and wireless tagging of stock.
2. BingoBox has over 150 static automatic shops operating in China, offering 10 sq.m. stocked with a wide range of items, and a video-linked assistant. It only takes 4 staff to run 40 stores.
3. Alibaba is testing a pop-up café with no cashiers, using facial recognition on entry, custom food selection, and mobile phone payment.
4. Amazon is using their own staff to test a food store with no staff and no checkout. Customers scan their mobiles on their arrival, select products, and leave paying through their Amazon account.
5. Alibaba is pioneering a retail ecosystem that provides a bricks-and-mortar store catering to both online and offline shopping. Groceries – or a meal – can be ordered online to be picked up or delivered. 13 cashless supermarkets are already operating, mostly in Shanghai.

Show full article

Walmart is partnering with smartlock makers at August Home, and the delivery service Deliv, to test (in Silicon Valley) grocery delivery straight to your refrigerator – even when you’re not home. The system starts with an order on Walmart.com; The Deliv driver takes your packages to your home; Ringing the doorbell initiates a phone notification; If you’re not home, the driver enters a one-time code to unlock the door, and stores your groceries in your fridge, while being monitored on security cameras linked to your phone.

Show full article

Amazon Key relies on Amazon’s new Cloud Cam and compatible smart lock. The camera is the hub, connected to the internet via your home Wi-Fi. The camera talks to the lock over Zigbee. Couriers with an in-home delivery package scan barcodes, and Amazon’s cloud grants permission by starting cameras recording. Couriers swipe screens, and doors unlock. Packages are dropped off, and doors relocked. Customers are notified, along with a short video showing the drop-off. The smart lock, connected camera, and free installation cost $250.

Show full article

Topology Eyewear is an augmented reality app providing custom-fitted glasses from a 3D scan of your face. First it takes a video selfie to perfectly capture your facial measurements; Then it manufactures customized glasses without the hassle of bridge slippage or uneven frames. Users use AR to test glasses for the desired look and fit. Price is $495-$800.

Show full article

Shake Shack is trialing a cash-free New York location, where the only ordering option will be via kiosks. It will feature custom-made kiosks with touchscreen ordering, and built-in text message alerts for when orders are ready for pickup. Staff will provide customer support.

Show full article

Walmart is using robots to scans shelves for out-of-stock items, incorrect prices, and missing labels, freeing up employees to work with customers. Initial tests of the program took place in a few Walmart stores across Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and California. Walmart will be expanding to 50 more stores, relying on customer and employee feedback as it grows.

Show full article

Miso Robotics’ hamburger-flipping robot debuts in one of its investor’s (Caliburger) outlets in Pasadena – the first of 50 planned. Flippy is an industrial robotic arm, bolted to the floor. After an exclusive 6-months, the robot will be sold for around $60,000.

Show full article

Citibank’s research paper involved several experts predicting the future of human employment. One forecast is that employment in the retail industry is likely to vanish. But there’s always going to be a need for humans to provide a face-to-face experience that robots can’t, and people who are really good at that will keep their jobs.

Show full article

MIT engineer and Assistant Professor Fadel Adib leads a research team that has developed an aerial drone system capable of reading RFID tags from tens of meters away and identifying the location of the package within 19 centimeters, by relaying the signals emitted by the reader over larger distances. Rfly could save retailers billions in inventory shrinkage while reducing inventory logging from a multi-day activity for a team of workers to less than one day’s activity.

Show full article

Wendy’s in 2017: >1,000 restaurants with self-serving kiosks; Mobile ordering in >50% restaurants. 3 kiosks cost $12-15,000 with a 2-year payback and the gateway to mobile. Plans to use kiosk data to customize its sandwiches depending on location and time.

Show full article

Thecorpora launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to get its Q.bo robot to the market. The robot is easy to build, simple to program, and easy to hack. This desktop bot is 400 mm tall and will be supplied in kit form so that would-be roboticists can learn how to build it, and it was designed around an open source software and hardware architecture.

Show full article

The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is exploring what role autonomous-vehicle technology could have in its business. The research hints at Amazon owning the delivery and logistics chain for its packages and making it as efficient as possible, which means eliminating human involvement (truck drivers, warehouse workers, maybe eventually even pilots) wherever possible.

Show full article

Since early 2016, Wal-Mart has cut more than 18,000 U.S. jobs and is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs this month, following similar layoffs earlier this year. The cuts fell mostly on its international operations, its technology group, and Sam’s Club. Walmart is countering the billions spent on improving its e-commerce operations to compete with Amazon.

Show full article

Credit Suisse analyst Christian Buss says retailers have announced 2,880 store closings so far this year. At this rate, more than 8,600 locations will close by year-end. This would be nearly 40% higher than the all-time peak of about 6,200 in 2008, during the worst of the financial crisis. And the trend shows no signs of slowing yet.

Show full article

Automation, not China, may be destroying jobs faster than they are being created. So how to create a human-first economy when what is beneficial for consumers is not what’s best for workers? Consumers are part of an ethical disruption by buying cheaper goods from Amazon after seeing them at a retail store (which provided access but received no revenue).

Show full article

The on-demand delivery company DoorDash is putting a small fleet of six-wheeled delivery robots into action for the first time in Redwood City, California, following weeks of tests. The robots, built by a company called Starship Technologies, are about the size of a golden retriever and roll around sidewalks with relative ease. They’ll be used to lug food from restaurants to customers on short-distance orders spanning anywhere from one to two miles.

Show full article

BeeHex is a Silicon Valley startup that has invented Chef 3D, a bot that can 3D-print a pizza in 1 minute, using custom shapes derived from a .jpg. It all starts with a smartphone app. After selecting the pizza’s size, dough, sauce, and cheese the bot goes to work.

Show full article

Walmart was granted a patent for a system in which drones would shuttle products between different departments inside its stores. The drones would use nets or hooks to grab and carry items or would be loaded manually. They would mostly avoid buzzing above customers’ heads by being routed over shelves. Sensors on the drones would help them avoid obstacles. Several drone landing zones would be created in stores.

Show full article

The U.S. has 50% more retail space per person than Canada, twice as much as Australia, and more than four times as much as the UK – and demand is plummeting because of on-line sales. Of about 1,000 malls in the US 334 are “at high risk of closing.”

Show full article

In 2016, Sports Authority, Wet Seal, American Apparel, Aeropostale, and Eastern Outfitters all filed for bankruptcy or liquidated their assets. Other major retailers like Macy’s, Gap, Sears, and Guess are in “survival mode.” To-date this year, retailers are planning to close >1,500 stores. A major crisis is rocking the traditional retail industry (caused by over-capacity, rising inflation, and on-line retailers like Amazon) – and it may never recover. Credit rating agency Fitch expects the default rate for the retail sector to hit 9% this year.

Show full article

McDonald’s is testing an automated burger dispensary in one Boston location, for one day only, on Jan. 31. By touching a screen, customers can choose between three sizes of Big Mac.

Show full article