Winsight Grocery Business
Richard Turcsik
December 2016
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Simbe Robotics has been key in that learning curve. The San Francisco-based company tested what it bills as the world’s first fully autonomous shelf auditing and analytic solutions robot—named Tally—in Target’s Bay Area stores, and also deploys them in limited assortment stores, supermarkets and drugstores.
“Our original goal was to automate some of the key operational tasks in-store, and we decided to align around the problem of inventory distortion,” says Brad Bogolea, CEO of Simbe Robotics. “Today retailers spend countless hours every week trying to ensure product is properly stocked in the right place at the right price.”
With its flashing head and taillights, and a series of “beeps” and “boops,” Tally—which resembles a 96-inch tower speaker—simply glides up and down each side of the aisle, using computer vision to check product stock, if it is in the right place, and if it has the right price. It then uploads the information to the Cloud. “Once we analyze those components for each of the planograms or categories in the store, such as deodorant, laundry detergent and salty snacks, we provide those key insights back to the retailer, to alert them that there are empty facings of Tide on Aisle 19, or that the endcap with the Greek yogurt on feature at 10/$10 is sold out and we have to make sure we get more in on the next truck,” he says.
Read more at Winsight Grocery Business.
