Robots pick and pack purchases in autonomous stores

You walk into an “autonomous store,” select a dozen grocery items from a touchscreen, and in under two minutes a robot has picked and packed your order.

No waiting in line, no traipsing around with a cart, open 24/7. This is the (very near) future of convenience shopping. The first such autonomous store is due to open in New York by the end of this year.

Cashier-less stores have been around for a while (you walk the aisles, scan your goods, and don’t need to wait in line to pay). Amazon Go uses all-seeing cameras so you don’t even need to scan, but you still need to walk.

The technology developed by Tel Aviv-based startup 1MRobotics goes a step further. Select your goods and a robot will do the rest, in what the company describes as “the first ever pick-and-pack automated nano fulfillment system.”

What that means is a two-armed robot inside a standard shipping container that’s crammed from floor to ceiling with up to 2,000 lines, about the same as many convenience stores.

The robot works three times faster than a trained employee – nine seconds per item, on average – to grab the items on your shopping list from a stack of “totes” (plastic boxes) typically holding three days’ worth of inventory including fresh produce, refrigerated and frozen goods.

1MRobotics’ system operates in half the floorspace needed if there were customers walking around. It takes no breaks, and unlike some human employees performing repetitive tasks, it never complains. 

This super-quick service, available around the clock, significantly reduces “shrinkage” – goods lost to shoplifting, spoilage or damage. And it opens up a whole new raft of opportunities for retailers.

Customer-friendly

Eyal Yair (CEO) and Roee Tuval (COO), who founded the company in February 2021, realized people had come to expect great service from on-demand taxi apps and pizza delivery apps, but food retail was lagging behind.

Yair, a serial entrepreneur now onto his fourth startup; and Tuval, a tech guru, developed the robot-in-a-shipping-container technology enabling “click-and-collect” shopping. It’s also a perfect fit the “dark stores” popping up across city centers that allow customers to order super-quick deliveries of basic items.

As well as meeting the needs of different types of businesses, the founders were keen to develop something that wasn’t going to baffle ordinary shoppers.

“Many technologies fall short when it comes to customer adoption,” Gonen Gershuni, the company’s VP Sales, tells ISRAEL21c. “They create too much friction; the customer has to adapt too much to start working with new technology.”

He says the 1MRobotics system is as easy to use as a bank ATM or a screen-based fast-food ordering station.

“You go to the display system, choose the products you’d like and [virtually] fill up your cart. Once you’re done, it generates a QR code. You scan that with your phone and get a four-digit key code that you enter at one of the kiosks. And then you receive your order,” says Gershuni. 

“It’s nine seconds on average per item, so it’s a couple of minutes max for the average order. If you place your order in advance, it would already be waiting there for you to come and collect.”

Launching in NY

The first autonomous grocery store will be operated by a supermarket chain with 20 stores in New York that’s interested in opening additional branches within the tristate area (including New Jersey and Connecticut). 

A major benefit is that 1MRobotics’ modular system can fit into any real-estate configuration — think universities, hospitals, transportation terminals and other busy sites where space is at a premium. And the stores can be up and running in a matter of days.

The same technology is also due to go live at an online grocery store in Israel next month for “last mile” deliveries to homes and workplaces. 

The pick-and-pack robots aren’t just for groceries. They’ve already been used by Nespresso for filling orders for coffee capsules in the Tel Aviv area and by iStore, the third-party retailer of Apple devices, in South Africa. 

“We’re in advanced talks with many of the market leaders in grocery and convenience,” said Gershuni. “We aim to finish the year with 10 live systems deployed around the world, and with 33 systems deployed in the coming year and a half. 

“We believe that what we’re building is something amazing. For a hardware company anywhere in the world to be able to develop fully functioning production systems in such a short timeframe is insane.”

1MRobotics has 55 staff, most of them working in research and development at its Tel Aviv HQ. Most are veterans of elite IDF units specializing in robotics, software and electrical engineering. The company’s assembly site is in Rishon LeZion.

The company has so far attracted $26 million in funding, from Ibex Investors (US/Israel), Target Global (Germany), Emerge and INT3 (Israel) and the Israel Innovation Authority.

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