A 24-hour experiment in Shanghai tested whether humanoid robots could run a convenience store around the clock without any human supervision. Six robots built by Chinese firm Agibot worked the full shift, but two of them failed to complete their assignments.
The robots handled 1,730 tasks over the day: greeting customers, picking and delivering products, making coffee, serving hot food, checking inventory and cleaning. The trial ran through the midday and evening rush, the overnight hours and the morning.
Not all of them kept up. The cleaning robot hit a full rubbish bin, veered off course, walked out of the store and could not find its way back to its station. A second robot, assigned to check and restock shelves, showed no initiative and fell behind the pace of sales.
The other four robots performed their tasks at an acceptable level, but the experiment made clear how hard it is for machines to handle a changing, unpredictable commercial environment without human intervention.
The challenge, called "Robots Never Clock Out", was designed to test the robots' capabilities under real working conditions. Despite the technological progress, it appears that even in a 24-hour shift, not all workers are ready to replace human beings.
