Robot janitor gone wild

Self-propelled floor scrubber causes stir in Walmart

Robot janitor gone wild
A robotic cleaner caused havoc at a U.S. Walmart store. Besjunior/Shutterstock

MARIETTA, GA. — A Walmart worker who fell asleep while riding on top of a robotic janitor — labelled “Freddy” by employees at a Georgia store — was just one of many hiccups brought by the self-propelled floor scrubber which recently went into operation.

The machine should have come to a stop if anybody or anything interfered with it, according to Walmart management.

But employees said the finicky machine would “swing toward groceries, just cleaning away” and “someone had to pull (the sleeping man) off,” said store employee Evan Tanner, according to the Washington Post.

Employees also reported that the robotic machine suffered multiple breakdowns and had to be retrained after taking the wrong turns on its cleaning routes.

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