4 ms·

That's what I was thinking. Seems like they will want to expand the capabilities, though, and that may be hard to do from ceiling cameras.

noonespecial 7y ago
Unless its going to physically stock the shelves, motion is so expensive and difficult to maintain and cameras and other sensors are so cheap, I can't ever see a mobile robot being more cost effective than a sensor blanket.
VectorLock 7y ago
It makes natural sense for the robot to move from identifying spills to cleaning them up. Lots of people say "well somebody just sees a spill and sends a human to clean them up" which doesn't work when the first person to detect the spill is the old lady who slips in it and breaks her hip.
- jfk13 7y ago
  If Marty is roaming the aisles at a reasonable speed (i.e. not so fast as to endanger shoppers!), there's still a substantial chance that the first "person" to detect any given spill is the elderly person with the fragile hip, while Marty ambles around the other side of the store. So how many robots are needed per store if they're to have more effective coverage than asking the employees who roam the aisles tidying and re-stocking shelves, helping customers find things, fulfilling click-and-collect orders, etc., to also report spills? Or perhaps these stores don't have any such employees on the floor -- they're just an array of unserviced aisles, with some staff at the checkouts?
  - VectorLock 7y ago
    >If Marty is roaming the aisles at a reasonable speed (i.e. not so fast as to endanger shoppers!), there's still a substantial chance Still substantial but less than without it. Most of the restocking and cleaning happens when the store is closed. Customers don't want to have people getting in their way stocking shelves and you don't want to be mopping floors (other than cleaning up spills) when customers are walking down them.
jfk13 7y ago
Of course they'll want to "expand the capabilities". With facial recognition, and their database of you and your family's shopping habits, it'll be happy to sidle up to you with helpful suggestions: "Your wife's phone says she's driving like she's really stressed this evening; why don't you pick up that bunch of flowers to help her feel better? And she'd love this wine with dinner. Wait, that's not the shampoo she usually buys; get her the one with coconut oil."

noonespecial 7y ago

Unless its going to physically stock the shelves, motion is so expensive and difficult to maintain and cameras and other sensors are so cheap, I can't ever see a mobile robot being more cost effective than a sensor blanket.

VectorLock 7y ago

It makes natural sense for the robot to move from identifying spills to cleaning them up. Lots of people say "well somebody just sees a spill and sends a human to clean them up" which doesn't work when the first person to detect the spill is the old lady who slips in it and breaks her hip.

jfk13 7y ago
If Marty is roaming the aisles at a reasonable speed (i.e. not so fast as to endanger shoppers!), there's still a substantial chance that the first "person" to detect any given spill is the elderly person with the fragile hip, while Marty ambles around the other side of the store. So how many robots are needed per store if they're to have more effective coverage than asking the employees who roam the aisles tidying and re-stocking shelves, helping customers find things, fulfilling click-and-collect orders, etc., to also report spills? Or perhaps these stores don't have any such employees on the floor -- they're just an array of unserviced aisles, with some staff at the checkouts?
- VectorLock 7y ago
  >If Marty is roaming the aisles at a reasonable speed (i.e. not so fast as to endanger shoppers!), there's still a substantial chance Still substantial but less than without it. Most of the restocking and cleaning happens when the store is closed. Customers don't want to have people getting in their way stocking shelves and you don't want to be mopping floors (other than cleaning up spills) when customers are walking down them.

jfk13 7y ago

Of course they'll want to "expand the capabilities". With facial recognition, and their database of you and your family's shopping habits, it'll be happy to sidle up to you with helpful suggestions: "Your wife's phone says she's driving like she's really stressed this evening; why don't you pick up that bunch of flowers to help her feel better? And she'd love this wine with dinner. Wait, that's not the shampoo she usually buys; get her the one with coconut oil."