How do you get humans to turn a blind eye to the impending robot apocalypse? With googly eyes, of course. Giant Food Stores, a grocery chain along the East Coast, has unveiled a new robotic employee called Marty that is engineered to make stores safer. The robot looks for out-of-stocks on shelves, scans unit price tags, and generates reports. The worst part is that Marty is outfitted with a pair of novelty googly eyes, prompting shoppers to stop and take selfies with it. The ending of “The Terminator” might have been a lot different if the T-800 had been equipped with adorable googly eyes.
According to David Grossman for Popular Mechanics: "The robots aren't quite replacing the humans in these supermarkets. Built by Brain Corp., which has also built robotic janitors for Walmart, Martys will be alerting humans to problems that need their attention. They'll move through the Giants and when they notice spills or other trip hazards, they'll alert customers verbally and reach out to employees through the store's public announcement system."
Alexis Gajewski has over 15 years of experience in the maintenance, reliability, operations, and manufacturing space. She joined Plant Services in 2008 and works to bring readers the news, insight, and information they need to make the right decisions for their plants. Alexis also authors “The Lighter Side of Manufacturing,” a blog that highlights the fun and innovative advances in the industrial sector.