Walmart scraps plan to replace human stock checkers with robots

Walmart has scrapped a project which used six-foot-tall robots to scan store shelves after it found that humans were able to perform the task just as well.

The American retailer, which recently sold Asda to the billionaire Issa brothers, had been using the robots by former toymaker Bossa Nova Robotics since 2017.

The robots were used to scan Walmart shelves and spot any places where items were missing. Information from the robots was then sent back to employees who could refill empty shelves.

During lockdown, more Walmart employees walked store aisles during as the amount of online orders increased, meaning the retailer was better able to measure how effective humans were at scanning inventory.

Walmart said in a statement it has "worked with Bossa Nova for five years and together we learned a lot about how technology can assist associates, make jobs easier and provide a better customer experience."

It said it is still testing other new technologies for tracking inventory and moving goods.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the ending partnership, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation who said the retailer found human workers could get similar results. There was also some concern about how shoppers reacted to robots doing the work, according to the report.

The cancellation of the partnership with Bossa Nova Robotics comes after Walmart announced earlier this year that it planned to expand the use of the robots to 1,000 out of its 4,700 stores in the US. 

Walmart’s decision to end the contract with Bossa Nova Robotics reportedly led to the company laying off 50pc of its employees as it switches focus to new clients and software projects. The business was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute in 2005.

Despite the cancellation of this contract, Walmart will continue to use robots in its stores, including automatic floor-cleaning devices.

Ocado, the British food technology business, is betting heavily on the use of robots to automate its warehouses. It announced earlier this week that it had spent a total of $287m (£221m) buying two American robotics companies: Kindred Systems and Haddington Dynamics.