R2D2 now selling hardware

For the festive season, Lowe's Innovation Labs introduced two autonomous retail service robots into one of the stores belonging to its Orchard Supply Hardware distribution channel in midtown San Jose, California. It aims to study how robotics technology can benefit customers and employees.
Called OSHbot, the robots help customers to navigate stores quickly by directing them to specific products and providing real-time information about product promotions and stock. In the coming months, OSHbot will also be able to communicate with customers in multiple languages and remotely connect with expert employees at other Orchard stores to answer specific project questions.
"Using science fiction prototyping, we explored solutions to improve customer experiences by helping customers quickly find the products and information they came in looking for," said Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe's Innovation Labs. "As a result we developed autonomous retail service robot technology to be an intuitive tool that customers can use to ask for help, in their preferred language, and expect a consistent experience."

For store employees, OSH­bot provides an additional layer of support by helping customers with simple questions, thereby giving staff more time to focus on delivering project expertise. Applications designed to support employees also include real-time inventory management and connecting them with employees in other locations to share know-how and answer customer questions.
The OSHbot incorporates scanning technology first developed for the Lowe's Holoroom home improvement simulator. For example, a customer may bring in a spare part and scan the object using OSHbot's 3D sensing camera. After scanning and identifying the object, OSH­bot provides product information to the customer and helps to guide the customer to its location on store shelves.
The OSHbot was developed through a partnership between Lowe's Innovation Labs and Fellow Robots, a Silicon Valley technology company. "With OSHbot," said Marco Mascorro, chief executive officer of Fellow Robots, "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…