Matey the product-hunting robot wants to make shops smarter

Robots and automation are already commonplace in food warehouses, but they could soon be coming to supermarket aisles. Fujitsu's Matey, shown at the company's annual showcase in Tokyo, move autonomously through shops to monitor produce and help retailers stack shelves more effectively. The robot is about five-feet tall and moves on wheels with a screen on the front used to communicate with any humans it comes across. A Fujitsu spokesperson explained that initially it will only be used when a shop is closed, trundling up and down aisles to check stock levels. Using a cloud-based AI, the robot could also analyse the placement of products to work out if they could be arranged more effectively.