Wal-Mart Testing Autonomous Floor Scrubber Made by Brain Corporation

One of the world’s largest retail chains, Wal-Mart, which has more than 4,600 stores in the US, is testing autonomous, robotic floor scrubbers in several of its locations. The original, conventional vehicle usually driven by a human was built by International Cleaning Equipment, but it has been automated by Brain Corporation, which specialises in autonomous vehicles for floor care. Walmart is evaluating the robot in five of its stores, with a view to introducing into more of its stores. Some of Walmart’s stores are almost 200,000 square foot, so the company has a lot of floor space to keep clean. Wal-Mart have said the tests are at the “very early proof of concept” stage. Brain Corp describes itself as an artificial intelligence company specialising in the development of self-driving technology for robots. The start-up recently closed a funding round in which it raised $114 million. Leading the investment was SoftBank Vision Fund.