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That inventory-checking robot may be the most useful AI startup product I've seen. It's a valuable and large problem, challenging yet tractable with today's tec

That inventory-checking robot may be the most useful AI startup product I've seen. It's a valuable and large problem, challenging yet tractable with today's technology. Curious if anyone knows other valuable and unique markets being addressed by new startups.

jayjay71 10y ago
The inventory-checking robot is an interesting pivot for Bossa Nova, a company that is 11 years old and originally focused on robots that could balance on a single ball (it spun out of Carnegie Mellon where the original Ballbot was created). They struggled to monetize it and made toys, which they then sold off and tried to figure out what to do. They ultimately moved away from their special technology entirely to work on inventory. It seems like a huge market, although I wonder how well it works since its vision is largely limited to the shelf item at the front and it likely cannot tell how many there are most of the time. A much simpler solution I've seen at many stores is to have a simple electronic system for each item and it keeps count of how many there are, I imagine each of these costs around a dollar (although you need hundreds or thousands). It's also simple and reliable, of course the robot scales easier for mega-stores assuming it can handle larger inventories easily. I think Mashgin has a really fascinating idea which is to automate the checkout counter at grocery stores, although I know nothing about how their algorithms work.
MojoJolo 10y ago
I'm thinking, isn't the robot somewhat unnecessary? Can't it be done by software instead? Maybe connecting into the inventory management system / POS if the grocery store and do the AI processing in it.
- clort 10y ago
  I thought that, but the inventory management gets out of sync when stock is removed without going through the POS (stealing) Even for a warehouse (restricted access), there is a need for stock counting as mistakes can be made
  - nibs 10y ago
    Eventually, an AI that accounted for shrink would be more accurate than any number of cycle counts. Actually, it would not take long, most major retailers have shrink predictions down to two or three decimals, you would just need to train the AI to account for shrink. The most important role of inventory is knowing how much to re-order, which can be done by the AI more easily than any human analysts once you have enough training data. Source: worked in retail management, then inventory software.

jayjay71 10y ago

The inventory-checking robot is an interesting pivot for Bossa Nova, a company that is 11 years old and originally focused on robots that could balance on a single ball (it spun out of Carnegie Mellon where the original Ballbot was created). They struggled to monetize it and made toys, which they then sold off and tried to figure out what to do. They ultimately moved away from their special technology entirely to work on inventory. It seems like a huge market, although I wonder how well it works since its vision is largely limited to the shelf item at the front and it likely cannot tell how many there are most of the time. A much simpler solution I've seen at many stores is to have a simple electronic system for each item and it keeps count of how many there are, I imagine each of these costs around a dollar (although you need hundreds or thousands). It's also simple and reliable, of course the robot scales easier for mega-stores assuming it can handle larger inventories easily. I think Mashgin has a really fascinating idea which is to automate the checkout counter at grocery stores, although I know nothing about how their algorithms work.

MojoJolo 10y ago

I'm thinking, isn't the robot somewhat unnecessary? Can't it be done by software instead? Maybe connecting into the inventory management system / POS if the grocery store and do the AI processing in it.

clort 10y ago
I thought that, but the inventory management gets out of sync when stock is removed without going through the POS (stealing) Even for a warehouse (restricted access), there is a need for stock counting as mistakes can be made
- nibs 10y ago
  Eventually, an AI that accounted for shrink would be more accurate than any number of cycle counts. Actually, it would not take long, most major retailers have shrink predictions down to two or three decimals, you would just need to train the AI to account for shrink. The most important role of inventory is knowing how much to re-order, which can be done by the AI more easily than any human analysts once you have enough training data. Source: worked in retail management, then inventory software.