Bossa Nova Bringing Robotics and Machine Learning to Brick and Mortar Retail

In the midst of what’s sure to be the worst year for the retail industry in over a decade, major retail chain stores will surely be looking for ways to cut costs that go beyond the massive layoffs and furloughs many have already implemented.  Automation and the industrial internet of things (iIoT) had already begun making their way into retail environments before the pandemic – when business as usual resumes, it may benefit companies to keep their payroll down by using retail robotics to do some of the grunt work that’s typically been performed by the human work force.  The gold medal winner in this year’s Edison Awards in the field of retail innovation, Bossa Nova Robotics, has developed a fleet of autonomous data capture and inventory analysis robots for brick-and-mortar retail outlets that are already being deployed in Walmarts around the country.

Back in January, Bossa Nova announced its plan for expansion to 1000 Walmart stores across several states, up from the 350 the company had been working with as of late 2019. The robots employ machine learning and AI software to take visual inventory of a stores shelves and determined which items need to be replenished in a given section or aisle. In a recent interview with The Robot Report, Bossa Nova co-founder and CTO Sarjoun Skaff says the gradual ramp up in deployment has let the company learn a lot about the needs of its corporate customers, including how to minimize downtime and keep the robots working functionally with limited human supervision.   

A major benefit of an automated inventory system, according to Skaff, is immediacy. You may have recently been perusing grocery and drug store websites that tell you things like toilet paper and hand sanitizer are in stock, only to find the store’s supply of those items has been exhausted since the last time the store’s website has been updated. Bossa Nova boasts that its robots can deliver inventory data to a central server within a minute of scanning an aisle, letting stores know in virtually real time which shelves need to be restocked during the inventory process. Real-time inventory is also a potential weapon in brick-and-mortar retail’s war against online retailers like Amazon.  The best advantage regional outlet stores have against online retail is proximity – the Walmart down the street is geographically closer than the nearest Amazon fulfillment center.  Theoretically, with the right infrastructure in place, they should be able to deliver goods to local customers more quickly than a multinational chain. Automated inventory and on-shelf awareness could become a big part of that infrastructure in the same way Amazon uses AI and machine learning to assess inventory in its warehouses.

Although Bossa Nova’s robots could theoretically be used in warehouses and fulfillment centers, or in the shipping and receiving departments of Walmart stores, the company continues to focus on front-of-store functionality. While the robots are currently better at identifying packaged goods – packaging often contains distinguishable designs and color schemes – the company believes they will soon be just as proficient at identifying produce in grocery settings, a key in unlocking automated inventory’s potential. Online grocery shopping is the fastest growing segment of online retail, especially with so many areas of the country (and the world) in self-quarantine.  Once robots are able to discern between different kinds of produce (and different heads of lettuce, for example), they even be capable of fulfilling online orders themselves, at least so far as collecting the items to be delivered. Bossa Nova looks well-positioned to be a big player in an ever-expanding market – we’ll keep an eye on them and other purveyors of automated inventory systems to see if this technology catches on around the world.