COVID-19 has changed the world forever. The novel pathogen epidemic put a tremendous amount of stress on both supermarket services and employees. The customers also are worried about shopping for their essentials. As Springwise reports, German supermarket Edeka has introduced Pepper, a robot to combat spreading of COVID-19 in supermarkets.
Robot Pepper reminds customers to practise social-distancing during the coronavirus outbreak. Since mid-March, all German supermarket employees have had to adapt to new regulations to keep themselves and customers safe.
To relieve its employees, German supermarket chain Edeka has introduced a robot to its Ahrensburg branch. The smart Pepper advises to customers on the protection and prevention of the COVID and helps to regulate the checkout process.
Antivirus robot Pepper was developed by Entrance Robotics. The machine helps Edeka’s visitors to maintain a social distance and implement preventative measures, through intuitive and unproblematic conversations. After a long period of self-isolation, there are many such awkward situations even among polite Germans, the managers confirm.
Robot helps customers to keep a social distance while shopping
Edeka is pioneering the humanoid customer service in the Hamburg area, as there are currently no other supermarkets that have introduced such a development.
The robot Pepper uses clear, unambiguous language, as the company has designed it specifically for human communication.
Following the unexpected quarantine, the coronavirus crisis has placed our society under exceptional pressures and as such, many firms have been developing innovative digital solutions that help in protecting the community.
Many of these digital solutions will be here to stay even after the threat of the virus has eased; Edeka has stated that they are looking to continue using Pepper the robot as a digital service for customers even after the crisis.
Pepper may help relieve the stress of employees having to remind customers of the precautions they need to take and allow them to concentrate on other aspects of their job. This is as opposed to the concept of robots taking jobs entirely, which is a fear many still hold.
