Walmart, the world’s largest wholesale and retail chain, has abandoned the use of robots for inventorying goods. The Wall Street Journal… Although Walmart was one of the world’s largest proponents of the technology, it ultimately decided not to renew the lease of the robots it used at its more than 500 retail and wholesale locations.
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Walmart has been using robots since 2017 when it signed with Bossa Nova Robotics. Initially, 50 points of the American trade network were equipped with machines. Robots were supposed to make it easier to do routine work in stores. They were entrusted with the task of scanning shelves using machine vision for the need to replenish stocks of certain goods. Bossa Nova Robotics announced earlier this year that it plans to expand its coverage to 1,000 Walmart stores.
The official reason for the end of the collaboration between Walmart and Bossa Nova Robotics has not been named, but it is likely that the coronavirus pandemic was not without. Edition The Wall Street Journal reports that buyers of the retail chain have begun to order products more often via the Internet. Walmart management at some point discovered that store employees began to walk between store shelves more often, collecting goods to form online orders. Probably, the company considered that employees at the same time could carry out an inventory of goods, that is, the task that was assigned to robots. An additional reason is that many Walmart customers have not been able to get used to the presence of robots in stores.
The completion of the contract had a very serious impact on Bossa Nova Robotics. According to TechCrunch, she already had to fire half of her employees. In a conversation with the publication, a company representative refused to confirm or deny the connection of this event with the termination of the contract with Walmart. He only stated that the company had to “optimize»Their activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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