DC Velocity - February 2017

26 DC VELOCITY FEBRUARY 2017 www.dcvelocity.com newsworthy

A new inventory-tracking robot called “Tally” could improve supply chain visibility by providing an inexpensive way to track goods after they leave the warehouse, according to an exhibitor at the National Retail Federation (NRF) convention in New York last month.

San Francisco-based Simbe Robotics Inc. makes the mobile robot, which maneuvers around crowded retail floors capturing high-resolution images of store shelves and automatically identifying and counting the items it sees. Tally uses image-recognition technology to do the work at a lower cost than traditional methods such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, its maker says.

The Tally robot is currently pitched for retail environments, not warehouse facilities, but the greatest potential value of this approach lies in sharing the precise inventory data with partners throughout the supply chain, Brad Bogolea, Simbe co-founder and CEO, said in an interview. “Retailers are rarely able to do item-level counting; the only time inventory is checked at that level is when it passes through a checkout counter or a manager tasks an employee with walking around with a [radio-frequency] gun,” Bogolea said.

Many stores find it too expensive and time-consuming
to track levels of low-value inventory through traditional
methods, such as deploying workers to scan bar codes
or RFID tags, according to Bogolea. Consequently, most
retailers get by with estimated inventory counts known by
the nickname “nones, ones, or tons,” in which employees
simply note whether a shelf is empty (none), has minimal
inventory (ones), or is fully stocked (tons), he said.

By capturing precise data on the speed at which products leave the shelves, retailers and their logistics partners could avoid problems like out-of-stock items and lost, damaged, or stolen inventory, he said.

“Our mission is to close the data gap between supply
chain and point-of-sale (POS) intelligence,” Bogolea said.
“Brick-and-mortar retailers have a pretty good sense of
what products leave the DC, but then that drops off until
the product passes the [point-of-sale terminal] in a custom-
er’s basket.”
A Tally robot could be seen wandering among the booths
at the crowded NRF show, rolling on a wheeled base and
navigating with an array of sensors such as lidar and 3-D
cameras. Each robot includes a round base about 36 inches
high, with a 60-inch mast rising above it, enabling the unit
to extend its camera to a height of eight feet.

Mobile robot tracks inventory on store shelves

WE HAVE YOUR BACK!

RackBack

800-808-1860
WireCrafters.com AMERICA’s Leading Manufacturer of Wire Cages, Enclosures and Partitions
Rackback® Safety Panels
mount to the back of pallet
racks preventing spillage while
also stopping items from falling.
Protect personnel while
containing inventory.