PORTUGAL – Sensei, in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), has launched “Dojo,” Europe’s largest fully automated superstore covering a total space of 500 square meters in Lisbon.
The supermarket, which its concept leverages high-powered HPE ProLiant servers to produce enough computational power to run Senei’s AI models, is not open to the public but will be used as a test lab for friction-free shopping on a grander scale.
Dojo’s technology emphasizes features that further improve the “friction-free” shopping experience, according to Sensei.
The features include gateless entry and exit, and an automatic card payment terminal where purchases are displayed in real-time at the end of a shop, so customers can make purchases without using an app.
There is also automated tracking of products served from assisted counters, such as a bakery, butchery, or fish counter, and the integration of self-service coffee and juice machines.
Sensei’s technology ensures that these items, as well as those taken by customers directly from shelves, fridges, freezers, and fresh produce aisles, can all be tracked.
Additionally, Dojo is equipped with HPE ProLiant servers, which provide computing capabilities to ensure Sensei’s AI models can process large amounts of data affordably and at speed.
Sensei´s technology uses computer vision, sensors, and AI to recognize all products and customer interactions automatically, so retailers can track inventory in real time and access a range of insights.
“This cutting-edge facility proves autonomous store technology can work in larger store formats and shows what grocery shopping will be like for millions of people globally within the next five years. This is what all supermarkets will look like in the future,” said Vasco Portugal, CEO and co-founder of Sensei.
“Friction-free shopping is on the cusp of becoming mainstream. Many of Europe’s largest supermarket groups are testing autonomous store technology or have already launched a check-out free store. Essentially, we want to make it as easy as going down, entering the store, taking the things you need, and coming back home again without having to wait in line.”
Portugal added that it is important for retailers, in the future, to make online and offline shopping ‘all part of the same string’, which is currently a challenge for them as they are treated as two separate business units.
Current innovations in the automated retail sector also include Bob Bistro, a series of smart fridge-type devices equipped with artificial intelligence and a “grab and go” technology with hundreds of sensors.
Similarly, AutoStore, the robot technology company that invented Cube Storage Automation, has recently developed a solution to automate the storage and retrieval of frozen food items.
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