Walmart isn't stocking shelves with robots just yet, but they will scan shelves using robots:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is rolling out shelf-scanning robots in more than 50 U.S. stores to replenish inventory faster and save employees time when products run out.
The approximately 2-foot (0.61-meter) robots come with a tower that is fitted with cameras that scan aisles to check stock and identify missing and misplaced items, incorrect prices and mislabeling. The robots pass that data to store employees, who then stock the shelves and fix errors.
Out-of-stock items are a big problem for retailers since they miss out on sales every time a shopper cannot find a product on store shelves.
Scanbots won't help with finding the 2 cans of baba ganoush hidden behind 50 cans of hummus.
Also at BGR and ArkansasOnline.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:30AM
Walmart was supposed to be doing logistics so well that the US military was sending officers to learn from and train with Walmart's people. A Walmart store knows what it receives via trucks, and should also know exactly what goes out the front doors due to the long-since computerized point-of-sale systems. Why the need for shelf-scanning robots? Is "loss prevention" so far behind Walmart thieves that an entirely new job needs to be created (or revealed, if humans had been doing this job previously)? Or are there just unmanageable swarms of Walmart thieves?