At just over two metres tall, Tesco’s Tally robot looms above shoppers as it stalks the aisles scanning shelves for the placement, price and availability of stock. It quietly whirs along, emitting only the odd electronic chirrup when someone gets too close. It can be an unnerving sight. As one shopper at the trial store observed: “Nobody went within five feet of it.”

Having grown to dominate the increasingly automated backrooms, warehouses and distribution centres of supermarkets, robots are now popping up on the shop floor, rubbing shoulders with shoppers and store staff. Their arrival raises important questions about how humans and bots can co-exist in harmony.

How should robots behave and function to ensure they don’t clog the aisles and put people off? What impact might they have on the livelihoods of store staff? And what does the future of retail robots hold?