Sensei has launched its new ‘Dojo’ retail facility in Lisbon, which is Europe’s largest fully autonomous store, the firm said.
Although not open to the public, it was introduced, this week, as a first of its kind test lab for Sensei and its partners to develop and test new autonomous store technologies.
The store, which has been created in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), is 500m2 in size while the technology behind the concept is scalable for retail spaces ranging from from 150m2 to 1500m2.
Its new 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 shop without using an app.
Another key innovation is the 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. The technology has been designed to ensure that these items, as well as those taken by customers directly from shelves, fridges, freezers, and fresh produce aisles, can all be tracked.
“Sensei’s Dojo is a big step in the rollout of autonomous stores and a major leap forward in this retail transformation,” said Vasco Portugal, CEO and co-founder of Sensei.
He added, “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 future.”
The new concept store will use a mix of computer vision, sensors and AI to recognise all products and customer interactions automatically. For instance, the Dojo has been equipped with HPE ProLiant servers to provide a foundation for heavy operational workloads. This will ensure Sensei’s AI models can process large amounts of data affordably and at speed, the company added.
