Resources

Rules and standards

What applies to robots that work near people and record what they see.

• ISO 13482: Robots and robotic devices — Safety requirements for personal care robots (ISO): Safety standard for service robots that work close to people, including mobile servant robots.
• ISO/TS 15066: Robots and robotic devices — Collaborative robots (ISO): Technical specification on robots working in shared space with people, including contact limits.
• Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery (EUR-Lex): The EU Machinery Regulation; it applies from 14 January 2027 and replaces the Machinery Directive.
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (gdpr-info.eu): Full text of the GDPR, which covers images of identifiable people captured by store cameras, including cameras on robots.
• Guidelines 3/2019 on processing of personal data through video devices (European Data Protection Board): How GDPR applies to video capture: purpose, retention, signage and the rights of people filmed.
• The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (artificialintelligenceact.eu): Text and timeline of the EU AI Act, including its rules on biometric identification.

Robot makers

Vendor sites, by type. Figures on vendor sites are the vendor's own.

• Simbe: physical AI and robotics for retail store intelligence (Simbe Robotics): Tally autonomous inventory robot, Tally Spot fixed sensors and Tally RFID; inventory, pricing and planogram checks with task lists for store teams. Performance figures on the page are the vendor's own.
• Retail automation (Badger Technologies): Robot detects out-of-stocks and pricing discrepancies, prioritises restocking, sends tasks to a mobile app, and detects spills and hazards.
• Robots, AI and autonomous technology for smarter operations (Brain Corp): BrainOS autonomy for commercial floor cleaning and shelf scanning; announces an autonomous mobile manipulator for stocking and picking.
• Autonomous robot delivery (Starship Technologies): Sidewalk delivery robots for groceries, hot food and industrial supplies; delivery counts on the page are the company's own.
• AutoStore: grocery and retail automated storage and retrieval (AutoStore): Cube storage system of robots on a grid, with grocery as a listed industry, a multi-temperature option and robotic picking at ports.
• Seven-Eleven Japan and Telexistence partner to pioneer humanoid robots with generative AI (Telexistence): Partnership announced September 2025 to develop the Astra humanoid, with deployment in Seven-Eleven stores targeted for 2029; Telexistence already runs a beverage restocking robot, Ghost.

Background

Histories of past and current deployments.

• Bossa Nova Robotics (Wikipedia): Shelf-scanning robots tested by Walmart in 50 stores from 2017, 300 more added in 2019; Walmart ended the contract in late 2020.
• Starship Technologies (Wikipedia): Milton Keynes service with Co-op and Tesco from April 2018; robots travel at pedestrian speed (up to 6 km/h), carry up to about 9 kg and can be remote-controlled when autonomy fails.
• Ocado (Wikipedia): Ocado Smart Platform licensed to Casino, Sobeys, Kroger and Coles; 2019 fire at the Andover fulfilment centre caused by a fault in a battery charging unit.
• Agility Robotics (Wikipedia): Humanoid robot Digit used for bulk material handling in logistics since 2021; Robot-as-a-Service contract with GXO announced 2024.

Data for your business case

Where to check labour and online sales figures instead of guessing.

• Food and beverage stores: NAICS 445 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics): Employment, hours and earnings for US grocery and food stores, updated monthly.
• Retail trade: monthly and quarterly e-commerce reports (US Census Bureau): Official US retail and e-commerce sales series.
• FMI — The Food Industry Association (FMI): US food retail trade body; publishes research on grocery shoppers, operations and the workforce.

More

• Hazard mitigation (Badger Technologies)