The LoweBot is designed to cover the most basic retail customer service task: helping shoppers find the item they're looking for. Need a hammer? The LoweBot will be able to help you pick the right tool from its inventory and lead you directly to its location. The robot can apparently listen to customer requests in multiple languages -- and when there aren't any shoppers to help, it can scan the aisle for missing products, helping human workers keep tabs on inventory.

Worried LoweBot is out to take your job? Don't be -- there's still plenty of jobs at the hardware store the armless robot can't do. Human workers are still needed for cutting wood, loading tucks with supplies, processing transactions and, of course, cleaning up that mess on aisle 9.