How Robots Are Helping Grocery Stores During The Coronavirus Outbreak – Forbes

Tally inside a store.

Grocery stores are considered essential businesses during the coronavirus outbreak, and employees have been working overtime to keep shelves stocked. As retailers struggle to hire more workers to meet rising demand, the use of robots may grow. Brad Bogolea, co-founder and CEO of Simbe Robotics, shared more in an interview.

Simbe Robotics' autonomous shelf-scanning robot, Tally, has been used in Schnucks Markets and Giant Eagle stores. The no-maintenance robot has more than 40 sensors that allow it to avoid obstacles as it navigates the floor to scan shelves. Tally can check 15,000 to 30,000 products per hour as it audits inventory through the help of cameras, computer vision and machine learning. It is able to identify prices, product placement, availability and special promotions.

"Tally strategically, autonomously roams up and down store aisles, quietly scanning shelves and identifying out of stock, misplaced and mispriced items. The data Tally collects about shelf health helps store teams by automating the tedious, often dreaded task of inventory and freeing up human workers to service customers in store, improving the shopper experience," Bogolea said.

Tally the robot.

Stores can use the data Tally collects in real-time, so they can optimize products on the shelves. This also helps them make better informed ordering and product placement decisions while analyzing trends. The data can be shared with retailers consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand partners to make better business decisions.

"Amid the coronavirus outbreak, we are seeing unprecedented surges in demand for not only products in-store but for retail staff across the country. Our partners have responded by making their stores more accommodating by adjusting their operations to ensure the elderly and other at-risk communities have time to shop without crowds and giving store teams sufficient time to restock and sanitize. We know that some stores are modifying Tally's traversal times to best support their adjusted hours," Bogolea added.

Tally's data is also helping customers find things easier inside the store. Schnucks Markets integrated Tallys product location information into its customer-facing app, which helps both shoppers and newer employees who are not as familiar with the store layout find the exact product location in real-time, down to the aisle and shelf section.

"For shoppers, experiencing out-of-stocks can be frustrating. Statistically, we know that two out of five shoppers encounter empty shelves in place of the products they are looking for, simply due to retailers not optimizing their inventory. For customers, Tally helps retailers ensure the products they are looking for are in stock, priced correctly, and where they are expected to be on the sales floor, improving the overall shopping experience," Bogolea said.

Bogolea believes retailers can lean on robotics to empower their human team members without replacing the workers, which would lead to job loss. Allowing technology like Tally to take on the repetitive, time-consuming task of inventory frees up store associates to focus on higher priority work, like getting items back on shelves as quickly as possible. This reliance on technology to increase efficiency and minimize supply chain disruption in the stores will continue to grow.

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How Robots Are Helping Grocery Stores During The Coronavirus Outbreak - Forbes