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Walmart Turns to Autonomous Robot Forklifts

• Eric Sorensen

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U.S. retailer Walmart is turning to robots for help as it works to keep pace with e-commerce rivals like Amazon.

The company said it will roll out 19 Class 1 electric, autonomous forklifts across four of its distribution centers, with the possibility of a wider deployment in the future. Walmart associates are currently being trained to operate the FoxBot, which is designed to handle a lot of the manual labor needed at the warehouse loading dock.