Stop & Shop Robot ‘Marty’ Gets Upgrade, Now Keeping Eyes on Store

New York shoppers have a new set of eyes looking out for them now that Marty the robot has received a major upgrade.

If you've grabbed groceries at any of the Stop & Shop locations in Poughkeepsie, Wappingers Falls, Newburgh, Hopewell Junction, Hyde Park, Washingtonvile or Monroe you've probably bumped into Marty.  The autonomous robot was put into stores four years ago with the simple task of keeping the floors clean.

Marty's main mission has been to patrol stores and look for spills and messes. But it appears that another purpose of the robot's presence has been to get shoppers used to seeing a robot patrolling the aisles.

Now that customers are used to seeing Marty, it's time for him to start to live up to his potential. Badger Technologies, the company that developed the robot, just upgraded Marty to do a lot more than look for broken jars of sauce.

The company announced this week that Marty has \been equipped with computer-vision technology, AI-driven business intelligence and cloud-based analytics to be able to actually "see" what's happening on store shelves. The upgrade, now in action at all 300 northeast stores, will allow Marty to alert management when items are missing from shelves or put back in the wrong place.

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With real-time inventory tracking built into his brain, Marty will now be able to help keep items in stock and avoid pricing errors. This major upgrade begs the question, what's next for the autonomous robot?

It's possible that in the coming years, Marty could be able to actually restock shelves himself or perhaps even look out for customers who may be attempting to steal. With Marty now helping to keep an eye on inventory, it's clear that the robot is destined to do more than just watch out for dirty floors.