Mobile Autonomous Robotic Carts (MARC) — sometimes called autonomous mobile carts, smart shopping carts, or small autonomous delivery/utility AMRs — are compact robots designed to move goods or assist people autonomously in structured environments (stores, warehouses, hospitals, campuses). They range from “smart” shopping trolleys that sense items and enable checkout, to rugged AMR carts that tow totes in warehouses, to hospital delivery carts that move meds, meals and linens between departments.
MARC covers several related device classes:
- Smart shopping carts (in-store, customer-facing) — carts with embedded sensors, scales, cameras and screens that automatically identify items, give a running bill, guide shoppers, and enable checkout on the cart itself (examples: Caper Cart / Instacart Caper, Amazon Dash Cart).
- Indoor/outdoor delivery carts / last-mile bots (customer or campus deliveries) — small, often wheeled robots that autonomously deliver parcels, groceries or meals short distances (examples: Starship, Nuro—though Nuro is a larger on-road vehicle).
- Warehouse/fulfilment AMR carts (goods movement) — robust autonomous carts or tugs that carry/tow racks, totes or pallets within warehouses and between workstations (examples: OTTO/OTTO Motors, MiR, Locus, Geek+).
- Healthcare/hospital autonomous carts — secure delivery robots moving medication, specimens, meals and linens across corridors and elevators (examples: Aethon TUG, Savioke Relay).
All share autonomy stacks (local perception, mapping, navigation, obstacle avoidance), communications/integration with operations software, and safety features for human-rich environments.
Leading vendors / manufacturers (by category)
Smart shopping carts (customer-facing)
- Caper (Instacart Caper Cart) — AI smart cart that recognizes items, weighs produce, shows running totals and supports payment on-cart; deployed in pilots with several grocers.
- Amazon Dash Cart / Amazon (Dash Cart technology used in Amazon Fresh and some Whole Foods) — self-scanning carts that let shoppers skip traditional checkout.
- Cust2Mate, A2Z Smart Technologies and other local suppliers — regional vendors working with chains (examples include Carrefour pilot partners).
Warehouse and industrial AMR carts (goods movement)
- OTTO Motors (OTTO by Rockwell Automation) — heavy-duty AMRs and tugging solutions for factories and warehouses.
- Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) — flexible indoor AMRs for payloads and material handling.
- Locus Robotics — multi-robot systems for order fulfilment (robots that carry or tow tote-carts).
- Fetch Robotics (Zebra Technologies after acquisition) — cart-style AMRs and logistics robots for warehouses.
- Geek+, GreyOrange, Omron, KUKA — offer AMR fleets and autonomous carts for logistics.
Healthcare / hospitality delivery carts
- Aethon (TUG robots) — widely used hospital delivery robots for meds, meals and linens.
- Savioke (Relay) — autonomous delivery robots targeting hotels and some hospital use-cases.
Campus / last-mile delivery robots and micro-vehicles
- Starship Technologies — small sidewalk delivery robots used by campuses, some retailers and food delivery pilots.
- Nuro — autonomous low-speed road vehicles used for grocery and parcel delivery pilots (larger than a cart; included because many retailers trialled Nuro for store deliveries).
Note: many traditional equipment companies and system integrators (ABB, KION group, TLD in airport/GSE) bundle autonomy into carts rather than building from scratch, so the vendor landscape mixes robotics pure-plays and legacy OEMs.
Retailers, hospitals and stores conducting pilots or rollouts (representative examples)
Grocery & retail (smart carts, shelf robots, in-store AMRs)
- Kroger — tested KroGO smart carts (Caper partnership) and other smart-cart pilots.
- Instacart / Bristol Farms / Fairway / Schnucks / Wegmans (pilots) — Instacart (owner of Caper) expanded Caper Cart pilots across multiple grocers including Bristol Farms and partnerships in New York; Wegmans and others ran trials.
- Carrefour — completed smart cart pilots (A2Z Smart Technologies) at flagship stores and continues to trial in multiple markets.
- Tesco — experimenting with scan-free kiosks and trolley weight-check trials (different form of smart cart / checkout innovation).
- Walmart — has a long history of trialling retail robots (shelf-scanning robots historically with Bossa Nova and others) though it scaled back specific programs; Walmart and other chains continue to experiment with various robotics and smart-cart solutions. (example: Walmart previously trialled Bossa Nova shelf-scanning robots before ending that contract.)
Warehouses & fulfilment centers
- Amazon, DHL, XPO, Chewy and many third-party logistics providers — use or trial warehouse AMRs from Locus, OTTO, Geek+, Fetch (Zebra), MiR and others for tote/pallet/cart movement and picking.
Healthcare & hospitality
- Large hospital systems (Mercy, Johns Hopkins, others) — have deployed Aethon TUG robots in multi-hospital rollouts to move supplies and reduce staff walking time.
- Hotels and campuses — used Savioke Relay and Starship-style delivery robots for room-service and campus deliveries.
Why organisations run MARC pilots — measured benefits
- Frees human labor from repetitive, time-consuming tasks (shelf scanning, shelf restocking, intra-hospital deliveries), letting staff focus on higher-value customer/patient work.
- Improved inventory accuracy and faster cycle times — smart carts + shelf-scanning AMRs can detect out-of-stock or misplaced items faster than occasional human checks.
- Better shopper experience / frictionless checkout — smart carts reduce queueing and can personalize offers while the shopper shops.
- Operational predictability and safety (healthcare) — hospital MARCs reduce corridor congestion caused by human porters and standardize delivery timing.
Key technical, operational and business challenges
- Perception in crowded, cluttered environments — carts must reliably detect people, bags, carts and dynamic obstacles; failure modes are sensitive in public retail or hospital corridors.
- User acceptance and shopper behaviour — some customers find smart carts intrusive or awkward; experience design matters (ease of use, privacy, weight/ergonomics).
- ROI & reliability — early retail pilots (e.g., shelf-scanning at large chains) showed mixed results: some programs were scaled back when human or software alternatives were more cost-effective. Retail-wide adoption requires clear, sustained ROI.
- Integration & data — MARCs must feed into inventory, POS, EHR (in hospitals) and WMS systems to deliver full value; integration work is significant.
- Safety, cybersecurity and compliance — medical delivery robots and public-facing carts require strict testing, secure communications and clear procedures for edge conditions.
Purchase / deployment models you’ll see
- Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) / subscription — common for retailers and hospitals to avoid heavy capex and to get software updates and support.
- OEM + integrator model — robotics companies partner with legacy equipment makers or systems integrators to adapt carts to an industry’s specific standards (e.g., hospital workflows, retail POS integration).
- Phased rollouts — pilots start in low-complexity zones (e.g., controlled aisles, back-of-house corridors, low-traffic store hours) before full store/hospital deployment.
Quick vendor short-list (actionable shortlist if you’re evaluating MARC tech)
- For retail smart carts (customer-facing): Caper (Instacart Caper Cart), Amazon Dash Cart, Cust2Mate, A2Z Smart.
- For warehouse AMR carts / tugging: OTTO Motors, Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), Locus Robotics, Fetch (Zebra), Geek+, Omron.
- For hospital delivery carts: Aethon (TUG), Savioke.
- For campus / last-mile micro-delivery: Starship Technologies, Nuro (for larger road deliveries).
Notable recent pilot examples (single-line references)
- Kroger + Caper — KroGO smart cart pilots (Caper partnership).
- Instacart / Caper — deployed Caper carts at Bristol Farms, Fairway, Schnucks and tests in NYC and other markets.
- Carrefour — smart cart pilot at a flagship hypermarket with A2Z Smart Technologies.
- Hospital systems (Mercy and others) — Aethon TUG robot fleet installations for multi-hospital rollouts.
- Warehouse deployments — OTTO, Locus, and MiR clients include large 3PLs and e-commerce fulfilment centers (case studies on vendor sites).
Where the space is heading (2025 outlook)
- Convergence of smart carts + store mapping + loyalty data — carts become another channel for personalized offers and store analytics (Instacart’s Caper strategy is a leading example).
- Broader RaaS economics — subscription models and bundled analytics services will lower adoption friction for mid-market retailers and hospitals.
- Integration into hybrid workflows — systems will coordinate human workers and MARCs more smoothly (task allocation, handoff spots, safety zones).
Model C2 | Autonomous Robotic Cart AMR for Material Transport | Quasi Robotics
Cust2Mate’s smart carts — SelfCheckout
Cust2Mate’s smart carts enable retailers to engage with shoppers on a personal level in real-time, from the moment they enter the store and throughout their shopping journey.
Our platform seamlessly blends online and physical shopping experiences, creating a richer, more cohesive and efficient environment for both the shopper and the retailer, while unlocking new opportunities for success.
Bigger shopping baskets
Increased shopper satisfaction & loyalty
Reduced shrinkage
Enhanced in-store operational efficiency
Fewer checkout stations
Reduced labor costs
Personalized in-store Retail Media
Cust2Mate (often referenced as A2Z Cust2Mate Solutions / Cust2Mate 3.0) builds modular “smart cart” systems that retrofit ordinary shopping trolleys with sensors, a touchscreen panel and cloud software to enable frictionless in-store shopping, on-cart checkout, analytics and security features. Their product targets grocery chains, hypermarkets and other high-throughput retailers that want to speed shopping, reduce queues and collect richer store-level data while trying to reduce shrink from self-checkout.
At its core Cust2Mate’s solution is a modular, attachable touchscreen panel and sensor suite (the Cust2Mate 3.0 platform) that can be fastened to existing shopping carts. Key hardware and software elements the company highlights include:
- A large on-cart touchscreen (Cust2Mate cites a 13.3″ panel on 3.0) that presents the shopper UI, maps, offers, shopping lists and checkout.
- Sensor fusion — multiple item-identification methods combined to improve accuracy and anti-theft: barcode scanning, computer vision/AI, weight/scale readings and (optionally) RFID. The company positions this hybrid approach as more reliable than any single sensing method alone.
- Connectivity and real-time services — the carts communicate with cloud services for live promotions, store location awareness, and telemetry (cart location, battery, usage).
- On-cart payment & checkout options — Cust2Mate supports integrated on-cart payments and has announced partnerships with payment providers (for example Nayax) to handle payments and cashless transactions.
- A modular retrofit design intended to reduce capex by converting existing cart fleets rather than replacing them wholesale.
Cust2Mate markets the product as both a customer experience device (skip the till, personalized offers) and an operational tool (analytics, theft mitigation, heat maps, dwell times).