Lowes Innovation Labs Transforming The Retail Industry With Introduction Of Robotic Employees

By Megan Zielinski, contributing writer

The future of shopping has arrived as Lowes introduced two new robotic “employees” to help serve customers in a Supply Hardware store in San Jose, California. The Lowe’s Innovation Lab will be testing the positive impact the OSHbot robots have on customers and the company.

The 5-foot, 85 lb. robots are designed to replicate similar duties as their human counterpart—guiding customers to products throughout the store, providing customers with detailed product information, and relaying the latest information regarding special in-store offers and product availability according to the status of current inventory. When a customer needs to find the exact same light bulb to replace their outdoor fixture, OSHbot makes the search task effortless. With OSHbot’s integrated 3D sensing camera, the robots have the capability to scan items that customers bring into stores, allowing for the robots to inform customers further on identified product while locating the specific item in stores.

The OSHbot robots will be able to converse with customers of all cultures and ethnicities as the robots will be soon be programmed to interact using any language the customer speaks. “We developed autonomous retail service robot technology to be an intuitive tool customers can use to ask for help, in their preferred language, and expect a consistent experience,” said Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs.

The inclusion of OSHbot’s support enables businesses to strengthen their workforce. While OSHbot robots handle simple customer service tasks, store employees will be able to pay more attention to other significant store tasks. Employees have access to view real-time inventory through the robots and the technology even communicates with staff in different sections of the stores—allowing for associates to receive product information straight from the robot. Within the next few months, the robot’s ability to connect with employees will expand even further—communicating thorough product and project information to employees at other stores.   

Lowe’s Innovation Labs has paired up with Fellow Robots, a company dedicated to reimaging retail with robotic technology—together combining teams of experts, scientists, and engineers to bring the autonomous service robots to life, with intentions to enhance the retail industry worldwide. The two leading companies were brought together by SU Labs, a program that joins corporate innovation teams with startups to correlate ideas and invent effective business solutions.

CEO of Fellow Robots, Marco Mascorro stated, “With OSHbot, we’ve worked closely with Lowe’s Innovation Labs to take autonomous retail service robot technology out of the sandbox and into the consumer market – enhancing the in-store consumer experience and creating smarter shoppers.”