Stock-taking robot navigates through supermarkets to keep shelves full

Gliding silently through the aisles, it looks more like a moving parking metre than the latest in supermarket technology. But this robot - called Tally - promises to end customers' frustration of finding empty shelves when searching for a particular product. The robot is described as the world's first'autonomous shelf auditing system' and is designed to stalk the aisles looking for stock that is running low. Tally can scan shelves up to 8ft (2.4 metres) high (pictured) to look for gaps, misplaced products and items facing the wrong way, as well as checking prices and checking for out of date products. The machine is also designed to look for price discrepancies or identify stock that is nearing its sell-by-date and so needs to be discounted. Designed by California based start-up Simbe Robotics, the robot is able to capture data on up to 20,000 products in an hour.