• Fast Company, Wednesday, February 17, 2016 9:05 AM

One of the most well-known employees at the Orchard Supply Hardware store in downtown San Jose, California, is a 5-foot-tall autonomous robot. OSHbot, as he’s called, just recently celebrated his one-year anniversary at the store, which is owned by Lowe’s. His job is twofold: to help customers find items they need, and help store managers with inventory tracking. When I approached OSHbot, his facial-recognition technology identified me as a human customer and he cordially introduced himself. "Hi, I’m OSHbot," he said in a monotone voice. "I can help you find things in the store. What are you looking for?" Technically I wasn’t looking for anything, but for the sake of research, I made something up. "LED lights," I declared. On a screen, a list of LED bulbs appeared.

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