AndyVision robots might spell end of retail assistants

Are robots slowly but surely taking over the whole world? That does seem to be the case from what we have seen in the movies – they might end up subjugating mankind like in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, or they could help us out as droids, ala Star Wars. Researchers over at Carnegie Mellon University are far more practical, where at the Intel Science and Technology Center in Embedded Computing, this bunch of brains on legs have managed to successfully develop a robot which is said to make life a whole lot easier at the supermarket – and also the lives of store owners.

Known as AndyVision, their robot will be able to assist store owners in keeping items in stock, where the robot itself comes with a Kinect sensor, image processing and machine learning algorithms, in addition to 2D and 3D images of products as well as a floor plan of the premises. This mechanized robot will wander around the shop, making sure that those items that are suffering from low lines or are out of stock will be replenished – soon, and alert the store owner of incorrectly shelved items. I wonder whether customers will also be able to pass a pre-fabricated shopping list to AndyVision and it goes through its database, printing out the exact aisle and shelves as to where you can find these items.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Robots
Tags: Robot