Robots are taking over

It's hard to remember the days before we could get groceries delivered right to our front step, or bagged for easy pickup at the Try'N'Save.

But I would miss going to the store if I did that. In a way, I relate to Brian Johnson from The Breakfast Club movie, who had a fake ID so he could vote. It was a big deal to get my driver's license because I could start running to the A&P to save Mom a trip. In fact, I was there so often, they gave me a job and I loved it. I do love supermarkets. 

I do understand that some people are not really up to the task of pushing a cart around the store (note for Southern readers: you call a cart a "buggy" and we don't understand why).  And then you have to haul it out to the car and that's a workout for some.

So, technology to the rescue, as always! Here comes Gita!

The word "Gita" in Italian means "short trip." A robotics company, Piaggio Fast Forward, over there has come up with a tiny robot companion to follow you around the Piggly Wiggly and on out to the car. It uses built-in cameras and recognition technology to stay with its master, so to speak.

You won't see it in your local store just yet; it's currently under test in Newcastle, England, by the UK National Innovation Centre for Aging.

"Gita is a first of a kind, a carrying, following robot," said Professor Nic Palmarini, director at the National Innovation Centre.

 

I mean, you can put 40 pounds of canned string beans, corn flakes, and rib roast in the cargo compartment, and you can lock it up, and if you run into someone from church who insists on holding a fifteen-minute conversation about the new choir director right in the middle of the tea-and-coffee aisle, it turns into a seat!

Put a microwave and a little TV in there, and what else could we ask?

"Well, it would be great to have something to carry your shopping," Gita tester  Carol says. "Have your hands free, particularly if it's a bad day and you're dealing with an umbrella, and your phone, and your purse and things, and somewhere to store it safely, your stuff.  And handy to have something to sit on if you've had enough or you want to sit down when you're shopping," she continued.

Now here comes Mr Palmarini to say, the point of Gita is to get us to exercise more.

"One good rule of longevity, of living healthier, longer life is just to walk," Palmarini said. "We should have to take at least 10,000 steps a day, so why instead of keep on generating objects and devices on top of which we sit and they bring us somewhere?

"Why don't we empower ourselves to walk more?" he continued. "And that's what we think is very interesting as a different approach to leverage the most innovative technology, machine learning, and robots, to allow people to walk more."

So it will be good to go for a long walk and be trailed by canned sodas, bunches of carrots, and 5-lb. bags of sugar!

Expect to shell out $103 a month to rent your shop bot when they become available.