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Robotics Idle

Marty the Grocery Store Robot Called 'Ominous', 'Mostly Useless' (mashable.com) 137

Posted by EditorDavid from the clean-up-on-aisle-nine dept.
By the end of the year, Stop & Shop will have installed 500 "giant, gray, aisle-patrolling robots" in its chains of stores, reports Mashable, starting in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.

"Attention shoppers: I've seen the future of grocery store technology, and let me tell you, we can do better." Each of the robots weighs a massive 140-pounds and costs a whopping $35,000. Oddly, all of the robots are named Marty, and atop their tall frames -- which tower over my own 5 foot, 3 inch stature -- rests a large pair of google eyes. You know, so as not to come off as complete faceless, emotionless, lifeless bots. If you're confused as to what these rolling mechanical columns do, Martys also wear the following description on their bodies like a name tag:

This store is monitored by Marty for your safety. Marty is an autonomous robot that uses image capturing technology to report spills, debris, and other potential hazards to store employees to improve your shopping experience.

Essentially, once Marty identifies a hazard using its sensors, it stops in its tracks, changes its signature operating lights from blue to yellow, and repeatedly announces "caution, hazard detected," in English and Spanish. One of several catches to their existence, however, is that the robots don't actually clean anything...

[O]ne of the robot's major flaws that its sensors appear to treat each hazard with the same level of caution. A harmless bottle cap or errant piece of cilantro will elicit the same response as a spill of clear liquid that someone could genuinely slip and injure themselves on, which means that in certain cases an employee may have to take time that could be spent interacting with a customer to walk across the store and grab a puny little grape that escaped a bag.
One customer complained on Twitter that the robot "just roams around and makes ominous beeps constantly."

And one employee confided told the New Food Economy site that "It's really not doing much of anything besides getting in the way."
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Marty the Grocery Store Robot Called 'Ominous', 'Mostly Useless' More

Marty the Grocery Store Robot Called 'Ominous', 'Mostly Useless'

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  • Emphasis mine:

    One customer complained on Twitter that the robot "just roams around and makes ominous beeps constantly."

    And one employee confided told the New Food Economy site that "It's really not doing much of anything besides getting in the way."

    Sounds like the perfect reminder (for both of them) that someone's always watching.

  • changes its signature operating lights from blue to yellow, and repeatedly announces "caution, hazard detected,"

    But how do you change the lights to red, and make it announce "kill mode engaged"?

    • But how do you change the lights to red, and make it announce "kill mode engaged"?

      Connect to the poorly-secured bluetooth and upload custom firmware. Bonus points for actually engaging kill mode.

  • "...in the bottle marked Draino" - GLaDOS

  • New uses (Score:3)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Saturday August 03, 2019 @02:12PM (#59034814)
    Employees can use them to record hot women in their area.

  • It's a warning (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xlsior ( 524145 ) on Saturday August 03, 2019 @02:12PM (#59034818) Homepage
    From the article:

    "But Marty’s introduction to supermarket floors has raised a number of questions about automation and surveillance for employees and customers alike—especially because the robot roll-out roughly coincided with a widespread Stop & Shop labor strike this spring to protest unfavorable changes to union contracts"

    This robot's only purpose is as a warning to the unions, and boils down to "We're not afraid to replace the lot of you with robots, so stop whining about your wages and get back to work"

    • More probable it's a theft deterrent. Employee and otherwise. The stated function of soup can detector is insultingly implausible.

      • From some stores, I am hearing it cuts shoplifting by up to 20% - a rate that would pay for itself under a year if the trend holds.

    • Re:It's a warning (Score:5, Funny)

      by stephanruby ( 542433 ) on Saturday August 03, 2019 @03:51PM (#59035172)

      And yet, that type of robot can only replace managers, not low-level employees (since it can only point to a spill, not clean it up itself).

      Hopefully, they'll make a CEO-like robot next. One of those could save businesses hundreds of millions a year!

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • I was going by the article.

          The robot they purchased can't clean up spills, not can it stock shelves.

          Obviously, there are more advanced robots out there, but in this particular case they didn't buy those.

          • On the one hand, you're definitely correct that there exist more advanced robots.

            However, I don't think there are actually robots available that could clean up spills in a way that would satisfy either state and local authorities, or the insurance companies. Nor are there robots that can stock shelves in a random Stop & Shop convenience store while also not injuring children that run up to it while it is working, "I want to play with the robot!!!"

            The concept of it being intended as a threat is hilarious

    • they're long gone. This is just an experiment. Probably to see if people can get along with the robots. e.g. do they knock them over, get hurt by them, etc. That would explain the limited functionality and limited roll out (500 stores is nothing, there's almost 40,000 nationally).

      The first goal will be to get people used to them. Next they'll be taking inventory (Walmart's already got some of those) and eventually stocking shelves.

      Unions are screwed no matter what. Virtually all employees are. Even
      • A friend was a union member who worked for Food Basket, a large local store. Tom earned around $20.00 per hour, a good wage at that time, 1970's. He bought a house that had two rental places which earned him enough to pay the mortgage and have extra money to save or spend.

    • > This robot's only purpose is as a warning to the unions, and boils down to "We're not afraid to replace the lot of you with robots, so stop whining about your wages and get back to work"

      Except they'll still do it the second a robot can actually do the job and at a price point that makes sense. It's not a warning, it's a harbinger.

      • You are absolutely correct.

        And in most cases, the replacement technology is 20 to 1 up to 1000 to 1. You get 1 new robot technician job for 20 to 1000 job eliminated. If it wasn't cheaper, they wouldn't do it.

    • Best thing about robots is that when one is found roaming the parking lot burning, with an axe lodged in its head, it hurts the company a lot more than doing the same to a manager.

  • }}} This store is monitored by Marty for your safety.{{{ --- I have to wonder just what data and information about the shoppers is being gathered by Marty. Once the robot identifiers a shopper, the "system" can follow that shopper around the store and into the check-out lane. If a "courtesy card" is presented, the store then knows who the shopper is and how the shopper shops. At a minimum.
  • The real story here is that a bunch of executives spent a fortune on useless hunks of metal just to troll their employees.

  • Misunderstanding? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by r2kordmaa ( 1163933 ) on Saturday August 03, 2019 @02:28PM (#59034884)
    Wasn't the original point of this bot to keep track of inventory on the shelves? As in count how many cans of mayo are left, what has been placed in the wrong shelf etc etc. That's why it's so tall, so it could see into all the shelves. Detecting hazards is just an extra feature which may or may not work properly.

    Of course, to an onlooker who doesn't know the purpose of the bot it might just look like it's roaming around for no reason.

  • I don't really care what it does. It rolls around and beeps. That's okay.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      I don't really care what it does. It rolls around and beeps. That's okay.

      Until it takes a picture of you buying alcohol or cigarettes. At which point that data is transferred back to Bait and Barfs HQ, where its filtered and sold online for a profit. One of which happens to be your health insurance company. Where upon they use facial recondition to you match your face to your identity, and then your policy. Where you have yourself listed as a non-drinker to get lower rates. Thus leading to the cancellation of your policy right when you are involved in that high speed colli

  • Pretty cheap for version 1.

    Version 5 will probably run the entire store except the checkout aisles.

  • Are they getting commensurate reduction in insurance costs if they respond to slip/fall safety issues faster via this?

    iRobot has a mopping robot for a few hundred of dollar, but it does an entire space, combine the spill detection as defining the "space" and you'd have more useful functionality with a fraction of the cost.

  • The only possible reason I can think for this lame sounding robot to exist, would be that the purpose is not actually to alert spillages, but to watch customers.

    There's two reasons to do this:

    1. To watch for shoplifters
    2. Market research

    It would be far more ominous if this were actually the case...

  • Each of the robots weighs a massive 140-pounds ...

    I'd re-phrase that when you girlfriend/wife says she weighs that much -- and is happy about it.

    According to the CDC [cdc.gov] (and others, Google it):

    Measured average height, weight, and waist circumference for U.S. adults aged 20 and over:
    Women:
    - Height in inches: 63.6
    - Weight in pounds: 170.5
    - Waist circumference in inches: 38.7

  • ... on the quality of grocery store employees.

    • "Grocery" store might be an overstatement.

      It is a place where people buy beer and cheesy poofs while they pay for their gas.

  • A few months ago all of the Stop and Shop workers were on strike for I think over a week. Did they think there wouldn't be repercussions? The intent is to address a pretty major concern in grocery stores which is spills causing people to fall and injure themselves. This is a very real thing they have to deal with. The problem is they are so slow and not very good at it so this seems like a failed experiment. That said, it's kind of scary how humanizing a pair of giant googly eyes are. It really doesn't take

    • A few months ago all of the Stop and Shop workers were on strike for I think over a week. Did they think there wouldn't be repercussions?

      1. Marty the Robot was around before the strike.
      2. The union won the strike (got most of their demands).
      3. The googly eyes are on the side, which looks stupid.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Is this supposed to be a parody?

    The robots weighs a massive 140-pounds and ... tower(s) over my own 5 foot, 3 inch stature.

  • Is the robot case isn't even symmetrical. If you're going to use that much material in building its casing, would it kill you to go a little tiny bit further and even out the base?

  • In other words, they don't do any meaningful work, they only tell people to work while standing around and being at best useless and at worst in the way?

    It finally happened. Robots in middle management.

  • You can tell, can't you?

  • well (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    which tower over my own 5 foot, 3 inch stature

    to be fair, everybody towers over a guy that's 5 foot 3.

  • on aisle 4

  • I expect the name "Marty" comes from another of Ahold NV's US grocery store chains, Martins. The robot at my Giant (yet another Ahold brand) is also called Marty.

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