https://twitter.com/TicToc/status/1201342769253535744?s=19
With lights and camera and msybe some AI could these be used to help inspect inbound/outbound trains? Tunnels? Track? Could be used on live track and just “hunker down” when a train passes by.
As with widespread use of low-flying drones … and urban shopping carts: expect to see their components recycled into a wide range of local items anywhere they’d be used in ‘meaningful’ neighborhoods. Or just vandalized for fun.
What you’d need would be the inspection dogs from Fahrenheit 451, complete with Novocain. And the willingness to allow them to use force to defend themselves. Probably not likely any time soon, unless of course implemented by Government.
See? They’re making the robots look cute.
Next thing you know, we have a robot revolution.
Well, as long as they’re cute…
The food store I frequent has a roving robot that circulates around the store cleaning up minor issues and announcing on the store’s PA system for cleanup of major spills that it detects. It is on the lookout for ‘traffic’ on a 360 degree basis and will stop or turn when ‘traffic’ is detected. It has its own designated parking space in the store so it can recharge its batteries.
Marty!
See? we even name them.
Cute my @$$, those little Sci-Fi nightmares give me the creeps.
If I see any of those things around the Fortress Flintlock there’s going to be some serious sledgehammer action!
Anyone besides me remember this…
I wonder if states would limit robot hunting season to the fall.
Yep! Marty at Martins!
The idea of a season’s a good one. Just tell all the country boys robots taste great and the season closes tomorrow! Watch how fast those things disappear!
Most of our local Giant supermarkets have one. The employees hate it - almost every time it’s a false alarm, but they have to stop what they’re doing and reset the alarm. It does nothing useful - except maybe document that the store has a diligent policy and practice of looking for spills, so as to defeat lawsuits for claims for slip-and-fall injuries - and supposedly has been the cause of layoffs. It will ‘alert’ at trivial stuff, but my wife has seen it miss some real hazards. It broadcasts its alarm in both English and Spanish - louder if it perceives the hazard as being really bad. It will stop or maneuver around people or carts . . .
[:-,] but I’m wondering what happens if you get 4 shopping carts and . . . (see the New and Improved Humor thread for the story about the guy in the Target store and his mischief).
It’s made by a company named Badger in Tennessee, I think.
Martin’s is owned by the same company that owns Giant - Royal Ahold, that I believe is a Dutch food conglomerate. Some people refer to Martins as Giant Lite.
When I moved to my community there was a newly built Gian
You just make more work for the employee. Ultimately Marty is supposed to scan shelves for products that need restocked, check prices that are wrong, etc - Walmart is using the same type of robots for that already.
I’ve read some online postings that claim their Marty has wandered out the front doors and was found in front of antoher store. Whether they are true or not - but I’d like to believe.
It would be interesting to know what would happen if Marty got into another store and was checking their stock and preparing an order…
Wandering Marty makes for a nice story, however, I suspect there is some form of electronic ‘tether’ in Marty’s software and communication parameters that would prevent him from leaving the building.
My Martins, has ADA ‘rumble strips’ guarding both entrances, so even if Marty made it to the exit, I suspect the rumble strips might present a operational challenge he can’t overcome.
In the railroad world, how many remote or belt pak engines continue to operate OUTSIDE the radio range of the Remote opeational controls?
WAY back in the middle 1970’s, GE’s Appliance Park East in Columbia, MD had a radio controlled remote engine. The B&O Yardmaster at Jessup would occasionally get calls from GE that they had lost contact with their engine and it was moving away from the plant on the Columbia Branch which was dead ended in the direction the engine was traveling. Whenever the B&O job was sent up the Columbia Branch to service GE or any of the other customers, GE was contacted and requested ‘hold on to your engine’ to prevent any issues.
To be fair, you don’t need robots or beltpak for that to happen. In years past there were two incidents of runaway industrial locomotives on the CN line northeast of Edmonton (near Fort Saskatchewan) that were 100% human error.
Incident 1. Engro (later Agrium, now Nutrien) fertilizer plant sends out one of their ALCO/MLW switchers to be rebuilt, it comes back with a new control system their crews are not familiar with. One day they break for lunch, thinking they have left it idling in neutral, really it is in forward and throttle 2 or 3. It runs out onto the CN line (no derail at the plant entrance then) and runs for about 20 miles until it gets into the main CN yard in Edmonton. CN lines it into a clear track and catches it with a yard engine. The very rough coupling damages both units and injures the CN Engineer.
Incident 2. Dow Chemical’s switching crews do not like riding their engine when running around the yard lead due to rough track. So they let it run itself around the lead, race to the other end in a pickup truck, and get on when it shows up. One day it shows up going WAY too fast to get on, and runs out onto CN by itself (again, no derail at the plant entrance). It runs down the main track at considerable speed for several miles before derailing on a curve.
In
That was another PR claim when Marty started. I don’t see how it happens unless the shelf space for that item is completely empty. If there’s only a box or two at the front, how can Marty sense that there aren’t more behind them? I don’t see stores putting RFID chips on each box of cereal . . .
I know WalMart was hoping that RFID would be cheaper. Amazon took a different approach with their “go” stores.
I actually read of just such a concept several years ago.
With everything tagged, a shopper simply walks through a checkout portal where all of the RFID tags are read, as well as the RFID for your store courtesy card. Your credit card is linked to the courtesy card, so everything is paid for, too.
I don’t know exactly how the scanner would know you had two boxes of Wheaties or four, but apparently it would.
It’s not a reach for Marty to wander the store and keep track of stock levels with such a system.
Of course, POS systems now are connected to the inventory computer, so if you buy the last box of Wheaties, there will be a fresh supply on the next truck arriving at the store.
I went to Wallyworld the other day - wanted to be 2 of a item, but there was only one on the shelf. Contacted an associate and asked if there were any more ‘in back’. After she checked her hand led stock computer was told that I was getting the last one in the store, the next delivery would be 4 of them on 12/11.