Robots in Retail

Australia’s first ever retail store staffed by robots

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humanoid robot

The idea of stores staffed by robots in various businesses has been gaining popularity in recent years. Robots can perform tasks quickly and efficiently, without requiring breaks or time off, and they can help reduce costs for business owners.

However, it’s worth noting that robots cannot replace human interaction entirely, and businesses still need to provide good customer service and experience to keep customers coming back.

An ice-cream parlour at Melbourne’s federation square is staffed by three robots.

The robots are named Pepper, Eka and Tony.  Tony has two arms and a screen that appears as a “face”. 

A team of ABB engineers worked to bring into reality a new retail experience for customers.

Robot serverThe process is simple.  It all starts with a touch screen.  The customer selects the number of scoops, chooses the flavours and toppings and the robots do the rest.

Pepper is a talking humanoid robot concierge. It can tell you all about the ice-cream, help you make your selection, track eye contact, simulate emotion and hold simple conversations. It can also dance and pose for selfies with customers.

Tony is a robot responsible for delicate tasks such as topping your ice-cream in hot chocolate sauce or sprinkles. Tony wears a tiny custom bowtie designed by Jacqui Sale – a look inspired by staff uniforms in 1950s ice-cream parlours – and has an LED screen for a face.

Eka is a robotic arm designed for efficient scooping. While this may sound like a simple task, Eka has seven different axes equipped with sensors and programmed with different scooping motions depending on the level of ice-cream in the container.

It’s just another example of robots serving up convenience.  Automation in the retail sector is nothing new.  E-commerce giant Amazon has been using robots to help with workflow for quite some time.  A “smart home” in Zurich was built mostly using 3D printers and robots.

The use of robots in the service industry is an interesting development and is something that we may see more of in the future.

So, should we be worried about robots eventually stealing our jobs?

A 2019 survey by recruitment agency Hays, found that 18% of Aussie workers have already had their job impacted significantly by robots, with their duties changing or their role becoming redundant.  Another 32% said their role had been impacted partially, with some tasks automated.

Adam Gregory from Linked-In says that automation and the ability to work with robots actually presents a huge opportunitiy for employers and employees… “Robots can take on the most mundane tasks, freeing up the workforce to do more creative and more complex work.  In fact, in industries like manufacturing, robots can take on the more high-risk tasks, thus providing a safer work environment.”

But in the future, it will be the robot’s biggest weakness that will be our biggest selling point… “soft skills” like communication, influence and problem solving.  Adam says that “In fact, 91%of HR professionals indicate that these “soft skills” will be the most in demand skills in the future”.

The company, Niska, is looking to extend robotic servers into other areas of retail.

Robots transforming retail

Robots serving in Retail

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Robots serving in retail shops are becoming increasingly common as retailers look for ways to streamline their operations and provide better customer service. With recent advances in AI, these robots are able to perform a variety of tasks, from restocking shelves to providing customer assistance.

One of the primary benefits of using robots in retail is their ability to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up human employees to focus on more complex or customer-facing activities. For example, robots can be used to restock shelves, clean floors, or take inventory, allowing employees to spend more time interacting with customers and providing personalized service.

Better Customer Experience

In addition to improving operational efficiency, robots can also provide a better customer experience. Some retailers are using robots to provide assistance to customers, answering questions and directing them to products. These robots can also be programmed to recognize when a customer needs help and proactively approach them, improving the overall level of service.

Recent advances in AI have made these robots even more capable. For example, natural language processing (NLP) allows robots to understand and respond to customer inquiries, while computer vision enables them to recognize and navigate through complex environments. Machine learning algorithms allow robots to learn from their experiences and improve their performance over time.

One example of a retail robot is the Tally robot, developed by Simbe Robotics. Tally is a mobile robot that scans store shelves to track inventory levels and ensure that products are correctly placed. Using computer vision and machine learning, Tally is able to identify products on shelves, track inventory levels, and even identify misplaced items. This allows retailers to quickly identify and restock empty shelves, improving the customer experience and reducing the amount of time employees need to spend on inventory management.

Another example is the Pepper robot, developed by SoftBank Robotics. Pepper is a humanoid robot that can provide customer assistance in retail environments. Using NLP and facial recognition, Pepper is able to recognize and respond to customers, providing information on products and directing them to the appropriate areas of the store. Pepper can also be used to collect customer feedback and provide personalized recommendations based on their shopping history.

Benefits of robots serving in retail

While robots in retail are still in their early stages, they have the potential to transform the industry by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and providing better service to customers. With recent advances in AI, these robots are becoming increasingly sophisticated and capable, and it is likely that we will see more and more of them in retail environments in the years to come.

Will Robots Replace Human Jobs?

Robots Replacing Humans

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Jobs at risk
Robot server

Can robots replace humans?

Business owners are in a race to replace their workers as quickly as possible in order to avoid being overtaken by their competitors. However, the flip side of this is that workers are not impressed and not really excited about the prospect of their jobs being taken over by robots.  One expert predicts that 40% of all current jobs will be replaced within 15 years by robots controlled by artificial intelligence.

Will robots replace humans in their jobs?

It seems now that in some countries, robots are becoming unpopular, to the extent that some humans are resorting to violence against the robots themselves, rather than against their creators or the employers who introduced them to the work place.  Recently a robotic security guard was wrapped in a tarpaulin and covered with barbecue sauce . In Russia a teaching robot was bashed with a baseball bat.  It seems to be a world-wide phenomenon on our robot planet.
So why this strange new phenomenon?  It could be that we are coming to regard robots as creatures very similar to ourselves… after all, our human hearts can be seen simply as sophisticated pumps.  And our DNA can be described in a form similar to computer code.  Even our nervous system is like to the electrical wiring inside machines.  The similarities are many.

Machines replacing humansWorking Robot

Does this mean that, in the future, a battle between humans and robots is inevitable?  Perhaps not.  One robot manufacturer has discovered that if robots are given a name, fellow workers are much less likely to attack them.  You can imagine a work place where a robot named “George” is introduced to the workers.  Mary, John and Alan will be happier to work with “him” and not resent the fact that one of their team has been replaced by a machine.  I imagine that lunch breaks and morning tea breaks would be interesting for employee conversation and bonding!!

Are robots going to replace people’s jobs in future?

So which professions can be challenged by the potential introduction of robots in the work place? Practically every profession practised by humans is now under threat by robots.  And this includes the most unlikely.  Robot chefs in restaurants are now a reality.
It seems that even journalism is under threat.  The Guardian has recently engaged a robot writer that has just written its first article!!  (I don’t know the name of this new robotic writer).
Even the medical and legal professions are under threat by artificial intelligence.

Jobs that robots will replace

Robots replacing humans in the workplace
Here is a list of the 10 Jobs most likely to be taken over by robots..Construction workers
  1. INSURANCE UNDERWRITERS AND CLAIMS REPRESENTATIVES
  2. BANK TELLERS AND REPRESENTATIVES
  3. FINANCIAL ANALYSTS
  4. CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
  5. INVENTORY MANAGERS AND STOCKISTS
  6. FARMERS
  7. TAXI DRIVERS
  8. MANUFACTURING WORKERS
  9. JOURNALISTS
  10. MOVIE STARS

Could a robot do your job?

Delivery Robots are on the Move

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Delivery Robot

Entrepreneur Ahti Heinla had been working with robots and also building them in his spare time when he responded to a request from NASA to help develop an autonomous rough-terrain robot to find and retrieve rock samples on Mars.  The proposal that he submitted to NASA was not successful but he and colleague Janus Friis then came up with the idea of using robots to make deliveries in suburban areas.

Delivery RobotToday, their company, Starship Technologies, has offices around the world and its delivery robots have travelled over 200,000 miles delivering over 50,000 orders in many neighbourhoods and on university campuses.  At George Mason University, its fleet of 25 robots makes it the largest robot food delivery service on a university campus.

Cost Saving Deliveries

The idea for the robot delivery service developed from the insight that 95% of the things that people order online are small enough to be delivered by a small robot at lower cost than that which delivery companies typically incur in the last few miles of a journey.

Delivery robots use similar technology to that found in autonomous cars, such as cameras, ultrasonics and GPS guidance.  But they are not totally autonomous.  The robots are able to put in a call to a human operator for assistance if a problem arises.  The human operator may be overseeing over 100 robots at any time.  The operator may not even be in the same country but can watch every delivery.

So how have pedestrians reacted to small robots trundling along sidewalks in amongst the human walkers?

When Starship rolled out their first robots to test them in action, at first people would stop and take photos but after seeing a few of them, most would lose interest and accepted them as part of the urban environment.  Pedestrians do not seem to find them intrusive or a hindrance to them going about their normal business.

It appears that sidewalk robots, far from being robot toys, could be here to stay.

Read more about self-driving vehicles for deliveries

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