Robotic shopping carts could be the wave of the future for shoppers.
We reported earlier this year that Wal-Mart filed a patent application for its own robotic shopping cart. The design looks like a standard cart with a Roomba-like robot situated at the bottom.
Five Elements Robotics, a Wall, N.J.-based robotics company, said Tuesday it plans to release its Dash Robotic Shopping Carts – and the design is a bit sexier than Wal-Mart’s.
The Dash cart is equipped with a scanner and payment system, so customers can scan and pay for their items at the cart without having to stand in line. The cart will even follow you back to your car for unloading, and when all your items are stacked in your car, it returns itself to the store.
“The Dash Robotic Shopping cart will absolutely transform the way we do shopping,” said Wendy Roberts, Five Elements’ chief executive officer, in a statement. “Once these robots are in the stores, we will not be able to imagine how we ever shopped without them.”
Here’s a look at the Dash:
Back in September, Product Design & Development reported that Wal-Mart filed a patent application for a robotic device that can power its carts and perform other tasks. The move comes as the superstore struggles to compete with the shop-in-your-jammies convenience of Amazon.
This is what Wal-Mart’s design looks like:
“In a modern retail store environment, there is a need to improve the customer experience and/or convenience for the customer,” said the Wal-Mart application. “Whether shopping in a large format (big box) store or smaller format (neighborhood) store, customers often require assistance that employees of the store are not always able to provide.”
Wal-Mart, which has a history of labor issues including battles with labor unions, pointed to high labor turnover rates and a lack of proper employee training to justify the robotic carts.
“Other routine tasks also are difficult to keep up with, particularly during peak hours,” the patent said. “For example, shopping carts are left abandoned, aisles become messy, inventory is not displayed in the proper location or is not even placed on the sales floor, shelf prices may not be properly set, and theft is hard to discourage.”
These things, Wal-Mart contends, can be helped with this Roomba-like robotic device. The device fits beneath a shopping cart. It can respond to voice commands, so its function is not simply driving carts.
