Last fall, Fellow Robots’ NAVii autonomous retail service robot debuted in 11 Lowe’s stores in the San Francisco area, marking its entrance into a major retail chain. The national home improvement store rolled out its LoweBot to meet the needs of customers and employees.

LoweBot was developed through a partnership between Lowe’s Innovation Labs and Fellow Robots, a Silicon Valley technology company specializing in the design and development of autonomous service robots that worked on Lowe’s OSHbot pilot. The partnership was initiated through SU Labs, a Singularity University program that connects corporate innovation teams with startups and other organizations to explore exponentially accelerating technologies and create new sustainable business solutions.

“We designed the NAVii robot to make the shopping experience easier for consumers—simplifying the process of finding the product you’re looking for—while also managing the back-end and keeping shelf inventory up-to-date for the retailer,” said Marco Mascorro, chief executive officer of Fellow Robots. “Leaving the data and simple recommendations to NAVii allows Lowe’s employees to devote their attention to the Lowe’s customer, to provide them with thoughtful advice and personalized service.”

LoweBot features an interactive screen that customers can use to enter a request. Or customers can ask the robot simple questions, such as how to find a product on a specific aisle, and in multiple languages. This provides more time for employees to focus on delivering project expertise and personalized service. Having the ability to scan inventory and capture real-time data with LoweBot will also help detect patterns or gaps that will ultimately influence business decisions.

Key functions and features of the NAVii platform allow retailers to use the robot to autonomously create a store map and product planogram. The LoweBot scans inventory to determine products that may be out of stock, find price discrepancies and discover misplaced items by using machine learning and AI. It also features a dashboard to notify employees of these discrepancies, allowing them to make changes in minutes rather than days or weeks.

See Fellow Robots at Booth 117 at RoboBusiness.

Fellow Robots
fellowrobots.com