Marty The Robot Will Make Your Shopping More Comfortable

Those who work at Giant Food Stores prepare to welcome a special coworker.

Recently, the company announced that Marty, the robot assistant will soon be helping out at its stores. The robot reportedly will help identify and report hazards such as powder, liquid, and food item spills. Marty will be deployed to 172 stores of Giant Food by mid-2019.

As per the supermarket chain giant, Marty was put into use on a trial basis in two Giant stores in Pennsylvania in 2018. Giant Food Stores president Nicholas Bertram said:

In terms of operation, Marty can spot spills, debris or other potential hazards by utilizing the artificial intelligence and image capturing technology, and then immediately inform the staff through the store's PA system. The robot will also concurrently alert the customers by saying "caution, hazard detected" if they are standing nearby.

Marty has a friendly appearance with the color grey. Especially, the robot is designed with two big googly eyes.

As per PennLive, the robot is packed with many built-in cameras and runs on a rechargeable lithium battery. Moreover, Marty is also equipped with scanners to avoid collisions with customers, staffs or facilities and infrastructure around it.

Also, Giant Food Store’s spokesman Christopher Brand claims that the robotic assistant will not replace human workers, but rather give their co-workers more time to help customers.

However, Giant Food Stores is not the only firm using robots and speeding up automation in its stores. Walmart said a few months ago that it plans to roll out its automated floor-cleaning robots to all its stores by the end of this month. Additionally, the giant retailer also said that they are testing robots which can scan shelves and do price checks.