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Wal-Mart Says It Is 6-9 Months From Using Drones To Check Warehouse Inventory (yahoo.com)
Multinational retail corporation Wal-mart announced on Thursday that it is six to nine months from starting to use drones to check warehouse inventories in the United States. The drones, which are capable of operating on autopilot, fly through the aisles snapping 30 images a second, and deliver real-time data to employees about whether the correct product is shelved in the proper place. From a Reuters report: Finding ways to more efficiently warehouse, transport and deliver goods to customers has taken on new importance for Wal-Mart as it deals with wages costs while seeking to beat back price competition and boost online sales. Wal-Mart said the camera and technology on top of the drones have been custom-built for the retailer.
Seems like this would be applied readily to Amazon warehouses- you could even have drones pick small items right off the shelf.
love is just extroverted narcissism
If you're talking about the back room of a walmart store, then maaaaaaybe. But installing static cameras and/or rails that capture EVERY location's contents accurately doesn't scale well with the 1 million sqft standalone warehouses they're talking about. The costs would far exceed any benefit. And gods forbid if you want to reconfigure your racks! Meanwhile, if you can make a $500 drone that can do inventory counts automatically, even if you have to manually program its flight path each time you change your rack layout, you've just saved a crapload of money.
Danish != nationality
Surely they're not just relying on video alone. Maybe RFIDs play a role too. Otherwise, this seems like a really expensive and error-prone way of managing warehouse space. Other warehouse inventory systems would seem to be more accurate and cheaper (things like pick-to-light; put-to-light, etc).
Proverbs 21:19
Get families off of welfare and stop taxpayers from subsidizing Walmart's profits.
By providing these people with jobs, Walmart is reducing the amount of welfare they would otherwise receive. If you demand that every employee receive a "living wage" that can support a family, then Walmart is going to replace many of those employees with drones/self-checkout/stocking-robots/etc. and the welfare bill will go up, not down.
If you go into a Walmart, you will see some employees in wheelchairs, some have Downs Syndrome. Many of these people would be otherwise unemployable. They are at the bottom of the economic ladder, and you want to kick away the lowest rung.
all you out there clamoring for $15/hr minimum wage. This is the beginning of the end of low paying/entry level jobs. We're seeing this in the fast food industry as well with automated french fry machines, and probably burger makers soon too. When government decides to get involved and try to tell businesses how to do things this is the predictable response.
When you are in a low margin business like fast food, or WalMart for that matter, you simply can't make a profit paying people $15/hr for entry level jobs that require little to no skill. So they turn to cheaper robots. So instead of a bunch of $10/hr jobs you end up with zero, or close to zero, $15/hr jobs.
The test for whether or not someone ought to be provided a mobility scooter is "can they comfortably walk through a Wal-Mart in order to retrieve the item they want to purchase?", and has nothing to do with what the specific reason for their being uncomfortable with walking that far might be.
Wal-Mart's prime competitor is one which requires zero walking, so it makes sense to offer a reduced-walking option for any customer who might desire it.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All