Kmart has announced they will introduce robots in their stores to help count stock.

Professor Gary Mortimer, retail expert from the Queensland University of Technology, said robots play a role in a number of retail outlets overseas.

“The robots are coming!” he told Scott Emerson.

“This is really interesting, we have seen robots play a role in retail overseas, certainly in the US, in Home Depot you can walk up to a robot in Home Depot and listen where’s the nails, where’s the screws? Or you can scan a product.

“The robot looks like a very tall, skinny ATM on wheels that runs up and down the wheels.”

The robot, named Tory, will be likely deployed in the quiet times or when the stores are shut.

“It’s going to do a couple of things, it’s going to look at ordering inventory and outer stocks in their stores … but it will also be able to locate inventory and help stores with recovery and presentation,” Professor Mortimer said.

“Kmart, quite an innovative option here to have a robot zip around and actually scan aisles and look for missing inventory and outer stocks and being able to re-order those items.”

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