A Walmart shopping cart corral in Newburgh, NY, may soon be out of work should the megastore switch... [+]
These days, it's fairly common to see the likes of NASA and Google racking up robotics patents, but a recent first went to a company known more for bottomed-out prices than high tech (and which, incidentally, holds the Guinness World Record for selling Guinness World Records).
Earlier this month, Walmart received approval on its patent application for robotic shopping carts that the company hopes will help streamline customer experiences in its stores. As Popular Science explains, shopping carts are useful for loading up with items but frequently difficult to manage, and "[Walmart], the physical retail giant, doesn't want people to worry about the inadequacies of carts while shopping."
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Filed in March of this year, the patent application describes a system of autonomously steered and self-returning carts that can, in effect, provide significant cart-related customer service when employees aren't around or are occupied (presumably) with higher-level tasks. It also asserts the robotic carts' potential usefulness for "[when] shopping carts are left abandoned, aisles become messy, inventory is not displayed in the proper locations or is not even placed on the sales floor, shelf prices may not be properly set, and theft is hard to discourage."
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Popular Science points out that Walmart's patented scheme also involves the placement of sensors throughout store environments, which would allow robotic shopping carts to tour stores safely but also help to instill them with pro-selling behaviors. In addition to carrying goods, the robotic carts could potentially use customer and sensor information to track down products in the store, access its inventory, and even engage in a little cross-selling by suggesting complimentary items.
Unlike helpful online algorithms, of course, the robotic carts would only be able to furnish customers with complimentary items that are physically present in each store. Despite that, however, it seems likely that a fleet of robotic personal shoppers could still help Walmart stand out from the big-box crowd--on paper, anyway.
[h/t Popular Science]
