The world’s largest autonomous shop was inaugurated in Leiria, a reality that was born as part of the PT Smart Retail Project, in which the ALGORITMI Centre is integrated.

Together with the Jordão company, based in Guimarães, the ALGORITMI Centre has incorporated the process of research and creation of technologies to support a new generation of retail.

‘The ALGORITMI Centre’s research teams play an important role in the PT Smart Retail Agenda. Particularly in the integration of collaborative robotic systems in the Smart Retail context,’ says Nélson Costa, the ALGORITMI Centre’s lead researcher on this project.

The Centre’s participation was ‘realised with the development of two demonstrators: demonstrator one is characterised by being a vertical piece of furniture with refrigeration, with an integrated robot for self-replenishment of the products on display; demonstrator two is characterised by being an anthropormorphic robotic system that carries out tasks to replenish products on shelves,’ he explains.

Assistant Professor at UMinho’s School of Engineering and researcher at the ALGORITMI Centre, Nélson Costa maintains that ‘in addition to these contributions, the researchers are developing support systems for operational efficiency and integrated Ergonomics and Safety solutions in the context of food retail’.

Joana Jordão Lobo, R&D&I Director at Jordão, says she is proud to be part of this project. ‘We couldn’t be prouder and more grateful to see our collaboration for this revolutionary shop become a reality. This was an exciting project that involved a lot of research, creativity and hard work,’ he says.

This project was funded by the PRR – Recovery and Resilience Plan, representing a total investment of more than 31 million euros, of which the ALGORITMI Centre received 1.5 million.

SOURCE: ALGORITMI