and the race is on to squat on https://www.robotsofwalmart.com
Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
21–30 of 332 posts
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you refuse to use the self checkout?
Can't answer for GP, but I use human checkout to provide epsilon demand for cashiers who need the job. Efficiency isn't everything.
I used to feel that way about bank tellers (having been a former bank teller a long time ago...) then I realized I was wasting 20 minutes in line for a simple deposit that the machine could do in under two minutes without a queue.
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#23It seems interesting to me, that computers seem to be taking on managerial roles and humans are left with manual labor. The robot knows how to tell a human to fix a problem but doesn't know how to restock the shelves itself. Similarly, in warehouses, computers tell humans what to do, and the human's job is basically just to grab things. In the end, the robot is already higher on the ladder than the humans.
Reminds me of this story: http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
I always thought it was amusing when people said it would replace burger flippers and the like. Why? They're cheap, and that's relatively expensive/difficult to automate. The slightly higher paid manager though? Ripe for automation.
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#24> the robots are 50% more efficient than a human doing the same task. They can also scan shelves three times more quickly and are a lot more accurate. Human employees can only scan shelves about twice a week. Personally, I want to see up-to-date retail stock mapping (that I can search) Walmart is testing a robot from Bossa Nova (Pittsburgh and SF) http://www.bossanova.com/ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/boss…
Why does it have to be a robot riding around? Couldn't the same thing be done from a camera on the ceiling?
Because robots look cooler. Also, I imagine it’s probably doing some stuff with depth perception crap and what have you.
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#25It seems interesting to me, that computers seem to be taking on managerial roles and humans are left with manual labor. The robot knows how to tell a human to fix a problem but doesn't know how to restock the shelves itself. Similarly, in warehouses, computers tell humans what to do, and the human's job is basically just to grab things. In the end, the robot is already higher on the ladder than the humans.
[deleted]
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#26It seems interesting to me, that computers seem to be taking on managerial roles and humans are left with manual labor. The robot knows how to tell a human to fix a problem but doesn't know how to restock the shelves itself. Similarly, in warehouses, computers tell humans what to do, and the human's job is basically just to grab things. In the end, the robot is already higher on the ladder than the humans.
Managers make decisions when the information is equivocal.
That is very hard to replace.
Resource allocation and unequivocal decisions are for the machines to help us with.
If, as a manager, you do more of the latter: be afraid
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't answer for GP, but I use human checkout to provide epsilon demand for cashiers who need the job. Efficiency isn't everything.
I used to feel that way about bank tellers (having been a former bank teller a long time ago...) then I realized I was wasting 20 minutes in line for a simple deposit that the machine could do in under two minutes without a queue.
Don't you feel a tinge of guilt when you walk in one day and now there's only two tellers instead of three? Maybe I'm just weird but I was at target yesterday and there were only three aisles open with lots of people going to self checkout. I said fuck it and waited in line for a person.
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#28It seems interesting to me, that computers seem to be taking on managerial roles and humans are left with manual labor. The robot knows how to tell a human to fix a problem but doesn't know how to restock the shelves itself. Similarly, in warehouses, computers tell humans what to do, and the human's job is basically just to grab things. In the end, the robot is already higher on the ladder than the humans.
More like: humans who program the robots > the robots > humans who are instructed by the robots.
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#29> the robots are 50% more efficient than a human doing the same task. They can also scan shelves three times more quickly and are a lot more accurate. Human employees can only scan shelves about twice a week. Personally, I want to see up-to-date retail stock mapping (that I can search) Walmart is testing a robot from Bossa Nova (Pittsburgh and SF) http://www.bossanova.com/ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/boss…
Why does it have to be a robot riding around? Couldn't the same thing be done from a camera on the ceiling?
But then you would have to spend lots of money of redesigning ceilings, having regular maintenance work done, etc.
Re: Walmart will soon have robots roaming the aisles in 50 stores
#30> the robots are 50% more efficient than a human doing the same task. They can also scan shelves three times more quickly and are a lot more accurate. Human employees can only scan shelves about twice a week. Personally, I want to see up-to-date retail stock mapping (that I can search) Walmart is testing a robot from Bossa Nova (Pittsburgh and SF) http://www.bossanova.com/ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/boss…
Why does it have to be a robot riding around? Couldn't the same thing be done from a camera on the ceiling?
It would probably mean that the camera would either have to hang down pretty low in the isles or the isles would need to be super wide so that the camera could get a good view angle of the entire shelf, including bottom rows. But sure I suppose they probably could have something that rides around on a track on the ceiling and raises and lowers to get into position in each isle.