European autonomous store provider Sensei and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have opened a showcase in Lisbon, Portugal, to test autonomous retail technology.

The Dojo store measures 500m², said to be the biggest fully autonomous store in Europe.

Not open to the public, the showcase store provides a retail environment for Sensei and its partners to develop and test autonomous store technologies. The technology behind Dojo is scalable for retail spaces from 150 to 1500m².

Dojo recreates all the features typically found in grocery stores worldwide so it can test and showcase its vision of autonomous retail in a realistic environment.

The size of the store demonstrates the scalability of autonomous store technology and allows for the inclusion and testing of innovations that improve on the friction-free shopping experience. These features include gateless entry and exit, and an automatic card payment terminal where purchases are displayed in real time at the end of a shop, so customers can shop without using an app.

An innovation is the automated tracking of products served from assisted counters, such as a bakery, butchery or fish counter, and the integration of self-service coffee and juice machines. Sensei’s technology ensures these items, as well as those taken by customers directly from shelves, fridges, freezers and fresh produce aisles, can all be tracked.

Dojo is equipped with HPE ProLiant servers, which provide secure and accelerated computing capabilities to ensure Sensei’s AI models can process large amounts of data affordably and at speed.

The technology uses computer vision, sensors and AI to recognise all products and customer interactions automatically, so retailers can track inventory in real time and access insights to optimise their operations and merchandising, and increase sales and customer satisfaction.

“Friction-free shopping is on the cusp of becoming mainstream,” said Vasco Portugal, CEO of Sensei. “Many of Europe’s largest supermarket groups are testing autonomous store technology or have already launched a check-out free store. Sensei’s Dojo is a big step in the rollout of autonomous stores and a major leap forward in this retail transformation. This cutting-edge facility proves autonomous store technology can work in larger store formats and shows what grocery shopping will be like for millions of people globally within the next five years. This is what all supermarkets will look like in future.”

Phil Cutrone, senior vice president at HPE, added: “Sensei is transforming retail with cutting-edge AI to deliver a seamless shopping experience while optimising operations. We are pleased to play a strategic role in enabling Sensei’s Dojo by using HPE ProLiant servers that provide an ideal foundation for critical workloads, such as powering next-generation innovations in AI and machine learning, as a result of the platforms’ high-performance, security and reliability. Together, Sensei and HPE are delivering world-class innovation for in-store grocery retailers, improving customer experiences and unlocking new data sources.”