Carts Assist, Robots Scan, Drones Deliver: Walmart Patents for a Store That Moves Itself

What is it?

When a shopper grips the cart, sensors in the handle can collect pulse, temperature, grip force, and related signals. Cart speed and pushing force can be added to the stream as the shopping trip continues.

If the changing data suggests that the shopper may need assistance, the server can notify an associate. The cart stops being only a basket on wheels and becomes a point where the store senses how the shopping trip is going.

What is it?

The cart harvests energy from wheel rotation and stores it while monitoring pressure at the handle. Under lighter load it can generate power; when forward pressure rises past a threshold, the motor can assist the wheels.

It brings the logic of an electric-assist bicycle into a cart that gets heavier as products are added. Instead of the shopper supplying all the motion, the cart can return some force.

What is it?

An unmanned vehicle moves through the retail environment near the shopper or cart and detects when products are selected. That information can build a digital basket and feed into a point-of-sale process.

The embodiments can include aerial or ground vehicles, and the disclosure even describes robotic manipulation for taking items from shelves. Rather than placing all automation at the exit, the machine travels through the shopping process itself.

What is it?

A motorized unit carries cameras and depth sensors at different heights. It reads shelf labels and products while measuring depth, then estimates how much of each storage space is occupied.

A job once performed by walking the aisle and visually checking shelves becomes a combination of position, images, point clouds, and inventory data.

What is it?

The store manages products in totes that mobile robots can move into shopper-accessible areas. In another described arrangement, the shopper selects an item on a display and robots bring the appropriate totes to the shopper.

In a normal supermarket, people travel to fixed shelves. Here the merchandise itself moves between storage and the customer, and depleted totes can be replaced automatically.

What is it?

A universal coupler under the UAV can attach different tool systems, including package holders, sensors, cameras, lights, and chemical dispensers.

The flying platform and the working tool are separated. One aircraft can move to the job and carry only the module that the job requires.

What is it?

A brush-like pollen applicator extends from the UAV, collects pollen from one flower, and transfers it to another. Sensors can verify that pollen was applied, and the aircraft can return to a docking station for charging.

Here, Walmart's automation moves beyond the store and into the field. Automation is no longer only about moving finished goods; it reaches into how a future product might be grown.

What is it?

The smart locker is not fixed into a wall. It is a portable container with wheels, authentication, and optional temperature control for frozen, chilled, or hot goods.

The same object can be both storage and a transport unit. Instead of always taking a package to a locker, the system can move the locker itself.

What is it?

A carrier vehicle stores lockers for different orders on internal shelves or conveyors. At a retrieval point, a smaller autonomous delivery vehicle receives the selected locker.

The smaller vehicle can carry that locker to a porch, garage, warehouse, or store. The goods do not have to be repacked at every handoff; the locker itself becomes the baton.

What is it?

A UAV carrying a package lands on the roof of a building or kiosk while the roof shields the recipient below. The package can then move down to the pickup opening by chute, conveyor, or automated guided vehicle.

Instead of solving the last meters of drone delivery only in flight software, the patent redesigns the receiving infrastructure too. Once the store can travel through the air, the destination becomes part of the retail machine.