Sam’s Club Expanding Use of Robotics to Improve In-Store Shopping

Sam’s Club will soon have a robotic scrubber in every club in their U.S. chain of nearly 600 stores.

The retailer is expanding its investment in BrainOS-powered robotic solutions, adding 372 autonomous floor scrubbers manufactured by Tennant Company, a Brain Corp partner, to the hundreds of units it has already deployed.

Sam’s Club will deploy new Tennant T7AMR floor scrubbers in their clubs, which can be deployed quickly without requiring any custom engineering. They can also be easily adjusted to meet changing operational requirements, such as different club layouts, without additional technical support.

Sam’s Club is also expanding a retail shelf analytics pilot using Brain Corp’s floor scrubber accessory for localizing and analyzing shelf inventory with the goal of improving in-store shopping experiences.

Following a successful six-month proof of concept, Sam’s Club made the decision to expand its retail shelf analytics pilot program. This cloud-connected application helps verify pricing accuracy, confirm planogram compliance, and ensure product availability without requiring time consuming and potentially inaccurate manual processes. The application leverages a dual function design in which a data collection and scanning accessory can be easily mounted on a robot, in this case, robotic floor scrubbers. This technology can be added at any time, providing the flexibility to get started with autonomous cleaning and add additional applications when it makes sense for the business.

“Tennant Company is excited to be partnering with Brain Corp, combining their expertise in software and AI and our expertise of technology integration, manufacturing and servicing of equipment,” said Rusty Zay, SVP, Technology & Innovation at Tennant Company. “The addition of the shelf analytics accessory allows us to further the value that robotic cleaning brings to our customers by providing self-cleaning, while also helping how they keep their shelves stocked.”

“The potential of robots, AI, and data working in concert throughout an in-store environment can only be realized by proven, commercial technology,” said Dr. Eugene Izhikevich, CEO of Brain Corp. “Sam’s Club recognizes the scale of this opportunity and we are proud to be selected as part of their connected club initiatives. With BrainOS powering the world’s largest fleet of autonomous robots operating in dynamic public environments, retailers and robotics manufacturers alike can have confidence in the safety, operating performance, and scalability of our platform.”