Alex F., manager at PAL Robotics, discusses RFID and the StockBot inventory robot with host Diana Sonato, Decathlon senior product manager Celia, and SML Intelligent Inventory Solutions president Dean F.
Alex explains that RFID uses radio waves to identify tagged items, allowing many tags to be read at once without aligning them to a reader. He describes StockBot as an autonomous mobile robot with eight RFID antennas, RFID readers, two 3D cameras, and a laser sensor. PAL says the robot has been in its portfolio for 10 years and is deployed in 14 countries.
StockBot can scan a store or facility and send inventory data to a customer’s cloud, ERP, or warehouse management system. The team describes full and partial inventory checks, validating store deliveries, locating misplaced products, supporting click and collect, and comparing sales across item locations. In warehouses, it can check whether stock at individual locations is correct, with antenna height adapted for shelves up to 10 meters.
Celia says Decathlon began testing PAL robots in 2018 and had deployed the solution in almost 120 stores across more than 11 countries. She reports that robotic inventory reduced the time store teams spent on inventory by almost 30%, while staff adoption required change management. Dean says SML’s Clarity software receives robot stock counts through APIs and can send instructions back, such as asking the robot to reread a section.
Celia wants to expand StockBot use cases and reduce the time Decathlon teams spend on non-selling tasks; she says their current split is about 30% selling and 70% other activities. She identifies automatic store mapping as a key need because layouts change roughly every two months. Dean says robot adoption depends on the return on investment and is best suited to high-volume stores with substantial inventory work, while Alex recommends setting clear goals and progressing through proof of concept, pilot, and possible rollout.
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Alex Fon, retail RFID business manager at PAL Robotics, shares lessons from RAIN in Action 2026 and describes how PAL Robotics’ StockBot adds inventory visibility to warehouse operations.
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