Walmart Ditches Major Robot Contract: So What Does This Mean For The Industry?

BEGIN ARTICLE PREVIEW: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. signage is displayed outside of a store in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on … [+] Friday, May 15, 2015. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is expected to release first-quarter earnings results before the opening of U.S. financial markets on May 19. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg © 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP Walmart has been investing heavily in robots, such as for cleaning floors. But the company’s efforts have not been without their challenges.  This week Walmart terminated its engagement with Bossa Nova Robotics, which is a developer of robots to track inventory in store aisles. This decision came after testing and using the technology for the past five years (about 500 robots had been in operation). So then why did Walmart do this? Well, it appears that a major reason was the ROI (Return on Investment). For the most part, humans could do the job more effectively than robots.  “Workers can perfo