Wal-Mart's robotic shopping carts tell you what to buy

Wal-Mart really loves robots as manifested by its experiments with deliveries and warehouse inventory checks that use robots and drones. Now, it wants to turn its shopping carts into personal assistants. This might not be an effort to create a full-featured personal assistant in the way home robots are, but Wal-Mart has teamed up with Five Elements Robotics to create shopping carts that can follow customers around and make suggestions about what to buy.

The technology might not be ready for prime time yet, but this is probably a shrewd move on Wal-Mart's part. Fighting e-commerce giants such as Amazon is not easy, so anything that makes the in-store shopping experience more pleasant should help keep customers coming back. This also represents yet another way robots are becoming more visible in public. Robots are already working in security, food delivery and behind the counter at Pizza Hut. Helping shoppers pick up their groceries should not be too hard.

Having robotic shopping carts could be advantageous beyond helping shoppers find products more quickly. If they are integrated into a local computer system, the shopping carts could immediately tell whether Wal-Mart has a specific product in stock and even allow customers to pay through the Wal-Mart app without having to wait in line.

Navigation and object recognition technology is becoming more common in robots. Companies working on interactive units for the home are starting to believe consumers want a smart machine that can follow them around the house. This technology is especially useful in drones, allowing the devices to film people while engaging in sports, and avoid collisions.