Report: Walmart decides against using robots for shelf scanning 

Some tasks are just as well done by humans as by robots.  

Walmart has ended its push to use roving robots in store aisles to keep track of its inventory, reported The Wall Street Journal. The retail giant has terminated its contract with robotics company Bossa Nova Robotics, which had about 500 shelf-scanning bots in Walmart’s more than 4,700 stores when the contract ended, the report said.  (The decision comes nearly a year after  Walmart upped its commitment to the Bossa Nova bots.)

The 6-ft.-tall Bossa Nova robot deployed by Walmart moves autonomously around the store, use cameras to scan shelves and detect out-of-stock items and check for pricing accuracy.

According to the report, Walmart ended the partnership with Bossa Nova because, using its workers, it found different, and sometimes simpler solutions to manage the products on its shelves. Also, Walmart U.S. chief executive John Furner had concerns over seeing shoppers’ reaction to the robots, the report said.