Hardware retailer Lowe's will deploy "OSHBots," which are fully automated robots that will help shoppers in need of assistance at its Orchard Supply Hardware store in San Jose, California.

The two OSHBot models can answer consumers' verbal questions such as where to find certain kinds of products. One of the robot's features that impressed CNET's Brian Bennett is its ability to scan physical objects customers placed in front of it and tell a shopper where the product is located inside a store.

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Built in collaboration with Lowe's Innovation Labs technology incubator and robotic from Fellow Robots, OSHBot was also designed to aid hardware hunters by speaking in various languages.

OSHBot, however, isn't the first exotic idea to spring from the collective imagination of the teams at Lowe's Innovation Labs. The department unveiled the "Lowe's Holoroom" the previous summer that virtually builds home improvement projects before consumers agree to buy something big.

It remains to be seen if consumers will see OSHBots at Lowe's hardware stores or Orchard Supply Hardware retailers around the country. It's also unclear if OSHBots will replace human employees.

Lowe's intends to increase the test number of OSHBots available in each store from two to four, or even six.

Lowe's Innovation Labs Executive Director Kyle Nel said the idea is to have the robots find their way into Lowe's retailers, and not just in one trial location. Nel did confess the company has "to see how things go in a real environment and see how it works."

TagsLowe's, OSHBot, Robot employee, Hardware store, Orchard Supply Hardware Store