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The new thing at the corner store: A robot sells drinks

A small robot with a clip-like hand and enough intelligence to know which drinks are popular is part of an effort to make convenience stores even more convenient.

A robot named TX SCARA moved back and forth behind the fridge shelves in the back of a FamilyMart store in Tokyo not too long ago.

The hand on the end of its mechanical arm grabbed a bottle or can from the stacks to the side. Then, the robot slithered to the right spot and put the drink on the shelf, in a spot chosen after its artificial intelligence and tiny cameras matched the type of drink to what's running low.

TX SCARA fills a needed role in Japan's "conbini," which are small shops that sell snacks, drinks, and other small items.



Most of these stores are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have about 3,000 different kinds of products, but they only have a few employees. The back shelves of drinks are the farthest from the cash register, so workers have to keep going back and forth. And the space for drinks is cooled, making it too cold for people to stay there for too long.

TX SCARA robot works, stocking drinks in the refrigerated section of a FamilyMart convenience store in Tokyo.
TX SCARA is filling a needed role in Japan’s “conbini,” or convenience stores.
Yuri Kageyama/AP

The price of TX SCARA is not known, but it can fill up to 1,000 bottles and cans a day. Telexistence, a company in Tokyo that made TX SCARA, says that its artificial intelligence, called "GORDON," knows when and where products need to be put on shelves.

"We want to get rid of all the boring and repetitive jobs that people do. We are going in that direction. And robots are the best way to do that," said Chief Executive Jin Tomioka.

Industrial robots are already common in factories, but Tomioka's 50-person company sees a lot of potential in warehouses and home centers, he said. His robots are much cheaper than industrial robots like those in auto plants, but they can be just as important for social needs. They are made to live and work with people and help with simple tasks.

Telexistence CEO Jin Tomioka stands before his company’s robot, TX SCARA.
“We want to automate all the repetitive jobs and boring jobs done by humans,” Telexistence CEO Jin Tomioka explained.
Yuri Kageyama/AP
FamilyMart Executive Officer Tomohiro Kano looks at a packed lunch at a FamilyMart convenience store.
FamilyMart Executive Officer Tomohiro Kano joked that “At FamilyMart, we are seeking a robot’s arm for help.”
Yuri Kageyama/AP

Tomioka's robots are made for stores that already exist, so they don't have to change how they are set up or what they do. Their hardware uses Nvidia GPU-accelerated AI technologies to let users control Microsoft's Azure cloud computing service from afar.

Wearing virtual reality glasses, a Telexistence operator can see problems, like a dropped drink, as they happen and fix them from the company office.

300 of Japan's 16,000 FamilyMart stores now sell TX SCARA. There are about 150,000 convenience stores in the U.S. and 40,000 more in Japan.

Telexistence CEO Jin Tomioka, left, and FamilyMart Executive Officer Tomohiro Kano look at shelves of a FamilyMart convenience store in Tokyo.
TX SCARA is now at 300 of the 16,000 FamilyMart stores in Japan.
Yuri Kageyama/AP

Japan has a labor shortage that is only going to get worse over the next few years because its population is getting older.

Tomohiro Kano, the head of FamilyMart, used the Japanese phrase "seeking even a cat's paw for help" to talk about how bad a situation could get. "We need a robot arm to help at FamilyMart," he said with a laugh.

Modern robots do important things like map disaster zones and help doctors do surgery. The TX SCARA, on the other hand, does the boring work of putting bottles of tea and orange drinks on shelves.

Taisuke Miyaki, who worked in IT, peered into the shelf of drinks and watched the robot work. He admitted that he hadn't noticed it before, even though he shops at FamilyMart often, especially for his favorite bottled jasmine tea.

"Now that I think about it, the shelves are always full," he said.

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