6 Technologies Walmart Adopted for Automation, Robotics
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Walmart has proven itself to be highly responsive and adaptable. The retail giant quickly pivoted to meet the changing demands of its customers by hiring additional staff, expanding its e-commerce services, and launching new fulfillment centers across the United States.
Being ahead of the innovation curve appears to be something that comes naturally to Walmart, as its track record for embracing automation and robotics confirms.
Here are six technologies the company has adopted within the past few years.
1. Nuro’s Self-driving Vehicles
In December 2019, Walmart announced a partnership with self-driving startup Nuro, which uses driverless tech to deliver products and groceries to customers.
Testing of the service will begin in Houston with Nuro’s R2 delivery vehicle and autonomous Toyota Priuses. Walmart hopes to gain a better understanding of how it can best expand autonomous grocery delivery across the country.
Although the pilot program was planned shortly before the outbreak of the coronavirus, the service is extremely well-placed to accommodate changes in consumer behavior and the demand for socially distanced shopping.
2. Flytrex’s Drone Delivery
Walmart has been experimenting internally with flying drone delivery since 2015 but has finally taken the plunge into real-life customer deliveries. This September, the company launched a pilot program with end-to-end drone delivery company Flytrex to implement automated drone delivery that is convenient, safe, and fast.
The small-scale program will begin with drone deliveries of select grocery and household items to customers in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Flytrex’s drones travel at 32 mph for up to 6.2 miles per trip and are capable of carrying loads of up to 6.6 pounds. The drones don’t even need to land to deliver their packages. Instead, the device lowers its cargo to the ground from 80 feet up in the air.
3. Walmart’s Intelligent Retail Lab (IRL)
The Intelligent Retail Lab (IRL) was revealed by Walmart in August 2019. Dubbed “the store of the future,” the facility serves as a testing ground for the company’s latest forays into in-store technology.
The fully operational store in Levittown, New York, is 50,000 square feet, holds over 30,000 items, and employs more than 100 staff. Technology in the IRL includes AI-enabled cameras that can monitor inventory levels and alert staff when products need restocking.
The store is equipped with customer information stations and a Welcome Center, which educates shoppers on the technology being used.
4. Alphabot’s Warehouse Automation System
Following a year of testing, Walmart implemented Alphabot, a warehouse automation system, in January this year. The system was designed by startup Alert Innovation and is currently operating inside a 20,000-square-foot warehouse space.
The system’s autonomous carts collect certain items — including refrigerated and frozen goods — ordered by online customers and deliver them to a workstation where they are checked, bagged, and delivered by Walmart employees.
Human employees will continue to process all fresh items by hand, but the integration of Alphabot will serve to streamline Walmart’s online ordering process, lowering dispense times, and improving accuracy. The robots can pick more than 800 products per hour.
5. Walmart’s Automated Assistants
In April 2019, Walmart revealed plans to expand its use of in-store robots, which included the addition of 1,500 autonomous floor cleaners, 300 shelf scanners, 1,200 FAST unloaders, and 900 Pickup Towers.
The robots will take on the most repetitive and predictable in-store tasks such as inventory checking, polishing floors, and sorting through products, which will allow human employees to focus on customer service.
6. Bossa Nova Shelf Stacking Robots
Following the successful implementation of in-store robots through 2019, Walmart announced it would be expanding its use of shelf-scanning robots earlier this year.
San Francisco-based Bossa Nova Robotics has designed a robot that can scan shelf items to help with pricing accuracy and restocking store inventory in real-time. Already present in 650 Walmart stores, the six-foot robots are soon to be installed in a further 350 locations.
