A Badger Technologies robot at work. The average grocery store contains between 65,000 and 85,000 unique product codes. The robots can check shelves for correct codes, prices, and placement in a matter of hours, as well as scan store floors for spills and hazards.
The day is not too far off when Kentuckians will have company in the aisles of their favorite grocery or home improvement stores. Gliding along gracefully, while avoiding bumping into customers, will be slender six-and-a-half-foot-tall, 135-pound robots with about nine cameras continuously scanning shelves and floors. The robots are a product of Badger Technologies, which is currently building a new headquarters in Nicholasville. They have already been put to work in stores in the Northeast, California, Portugal, Panama, Australia, and New Zealand. Kentucky’s turn may be coming because these robots are hailed as the wave of the future.
William “B.J.” Santiago
The wheeled robots assist in evaluating shelf conditions by looking for empty product space, incorrect prices, and out-of-place stock. The average grocery store has between 65,000 and 85,000 product codes. “Typically, it takes a store’s employees 50 to 70 hours a week of tedious shelf checking to get things into some kind of order,” said William “B.J.” Santiago, Badger Technologies CEO. “The robots can do the job in two hours per day — and it reports back to store employees 15 minutes after an aisle is completed. Information goes to handheld devices, and people act on it.”
Even “top stock” — products on pallets way above a customer’s reach — can be scanned. The robot’s cameras see it all in 3D, high-resolution detail.
Efficiencies and Impact
Of course, a store’s bottom line is at the heart of all this. Robots allow retailers to boost profits by being more efficient at getting products back onto shelves, in the right places, and at the correct prices.
Santiago says shoppers are fickle, and brand loyalty is essentially a thing of the past. He says statistics show that if a customer comes into a store twice to buy an item and it’s not there, out the door they go — perhaps never to return. Maybe the item was in the store’s back room or the wrong spot on the shelf. It doesn’t matter; that customer is lost. Santiago believes humans often lack the attention and time to carefully check every single product line on every shelf every day the way a robot can. “This robotics system also helps address the labor shortage we now see in many stores. The workforce is aging. Stores are not hiring as many young people,” he said.
Brian Lee, Badger’s senior director of product management, says the company currently has about 650 robots in service around the world. Stores can decide when and how they would like the robots to run, then store workers “get the to-do lists the robots created, and begin to stock shelves and adjust prices,” he said.
The robots can also scan an aisle’s floors for things like fallen merchandise and spills and quickly report the hazards. Injuries that occur in their stores often result in litigation which retailers would prefer to avoid. When it completes its tasks, the robot returns automatically to its charging station. These data-collecting bots can work continuously for as many as 12 hours when fully charged.
Retailers have the option of buying robots outright, or they can lease them. Technology changes rapidly, so the robots can be easily updated with new software. Every Badger robot across the globe is monitored from what is dubbed the “Sky Box,” a technology center located in Lexington.
When asked if Kentucky stores will soon be getting Badger robots, Santiago gets a gleam in his eyes and acknowledges that the day is coming, but just not yet. Landing a massive chain like Kroger, based in nearby Cincinnati, would be a prime get. In addition to grocery items, the robots also scan merchandise in home improvement and clothing aisles and stores.
Origins and Future Plans
Several years ago, this concept was considered a bit ahead of its time. But then COVID struck, and the world changed. Santiago thinks robots are needed now. “We grew by 500 percent last year,” he said. “This will soon become common. We are pioneers in having this kind of robot do this kind of activity in a retail setting.”
The robotics idea began as a project for a group of engineers working at Lexmark in Lexington. In 2016, Lexmark was acquired by a consortium led by Apex Technology. The creator of the robots was due to retire and asked if he could take the intellectual property for the design for himself and possibly start a business. Apex said it had no plans for the robotics idea and let it go. A year later, Badger Technologies was born.
“They looked for contract manufacturers to make the robots and met people at Jabil, a $33 billion worldwide manufacturing solutions provider,” Santiago said. “Now, Badger Technologies is a product division of Jabil. The robots are primarily built in Chihuahua, Mexico.”
Badger Technologies is located in a shopping center on Brannon Road in Nicholasville. The headquarters is in one building, and a test lab run by electrical and mechanical engineers is nearby. Last May, Badger broke ground on a new headquarters located a mile away and scheduled to be completed by summer 2024.
A rendering of the Badger Technologies headquarters under construction in Nicholasville.
The new structure will have twice the floor space of the two current buildings. Additional land was acquired behind the building under construction for further expansion. “We wanted to stay in Nicholasville because Nicholasville has been good to us,” Santiago said.
Badger’s leaders are proud of the graduates coming out of Kentucky’s engineering schools. Jabil, Badger’s parent company, wants to make the new Badger building an engineering Center of Excellence. “That will grow new employees on the engineering side for all business units of Jabil,” Santiago said. “They will use our engineers to help in other parts of their business, such as design work.” The company has also established relationships with the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, and the University of the Cumberlands to offer student internships and help nurture future engineers.