Auchan Retail Portugal is testing an autonomous robot capable of identifying out of stock items and detecting problems in the price labels of products in store shelves, according to a report in Jornal Economico.
The pilot is being conducted in partnership with technology company Trax, to implement a set of autonomous solutions for online monitoring of stores for better customer service and increased productivity.
The robot can be seen in action in the aisles of the Auchan outlet in Alfragide, the report said.
By 2021, this project will be extended to 34 Auchan stores in Portugal.
Second Stage
In a second stage, the retailer aims to use the robot to map the store, facilitate the collection of products for online orders, and provide customers with an interactive map with the location of each item in the store, a report in Noticias ao Minuto said.
The TASC (Technology at Customer Service) technology was developed in collaboration with German robotics company MetraLabs and is the second such robot in Europe.
The robot walks freely through the aisles of the hypermarket, three times a day, to collect and transmit real-time information to the store teams.
The teams can then act quickly and efficiently, replacing products, placing missing price tags, and adjusting the shelf space of each item, according to the specific consumption rhythm of the store area.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
