The store of the future is packed with smart technology

“Our mission as an innovation hub is to add impetus to the digitalisation, automation and robotisation of Colruyt Group’s stores, distribution centres and transport. To this end, we test innovative technologies capable of making our company future-proof,” Greg Pinte, technology manager at Smart  Innovation explains. "We use proven technology, but also develop products and services in-house. To achieve all this, we work together with our colleagues from IT, Technics and the other support services of our group. Together, we form a diverse team of experts in robotics, computer vision technology and cybersecurity, software engineers, IT architects, project engineers, technicians and more."

"Computer vision, weight cells, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. All these are digital technologies. This offers a lot of advantages, such as scalability, for example," Jeroen Diels, project engineer at Smart Innovation, explains. "Once the hardware and software are fully in place, they are fairly easy to roll out to another location. By the way, did you know that computer vision adapts itself to its environment? The cameras calibrate themselves and adjust their settings where necessary."

"The pilot phase of a project is a relay race, with Smart Innovation and IT holding the baton together. At Smart Innovation, we are driven by innovation and speed. Our focus is on ‘phygital automation’: physical and digital automation. To then integrate those applications into our company's existing IT systems, we work closely together with our colleagues at Colruyt Group IT," says Greg. "Because while our smart cameras can recognise bar codes, they need to know which code corresponds to which product, and to which current price. And our self-propelled forklift can indeed move pallets by itself, but we also need to know which products are on those pallets."