It’s difficult keeping up with all the advances in robotic technology.
On Mach 20, I reported on “DRU” Domino’s Unmanned Pizza Delivery Robot. DRU is on
trial in 7 countries.
What I did not know was “DRU” has a twin sister about to roam the streets
of Washington D.C.
In addition, robotic pet cats for the elderly, Hilton’s “Concierge
Connie”, and “Sophia”, your medical robot specialist are all in the news.
Driverless Robots to Hit D.C. Sidewalks
The Washington Post reports Driverless Delivery Robots Could be Hitting D.C. Sidewalks
Soon.
A brood of sidewalk drones could be rolling around the nation’s capital
within a year, if a D.C. Council member has her way.
Executives from Starship Technologies, with roots in Estonia and London,
say their goal is to unleash a platoon of “smart, friendly robots” that will
ply sidewalks along with pedestrians to make local deliveries of groceries or
small packages “almost free.”
Councilwoman Mary Cheh and company officials sought to make a splash by
promising one of the squat vehicles on Wednesday would deliver legislation to
the council authorizing self-driving delivery robots. The little white
device, which looks like an ice chest rolling on six wagon wheels, did indeed
scoot its way into Council Secretary Nyasha Smith’s office with the
three-page bill in its compartment and reporters on its tail.
Allan Martinson, Starship’s chief operating officer, who saw some 6,000
firms as a venture capitalist before deciding to join the robotic delivery
startup. This is no phantom product that will have fizzled in a year, he
said.
As for run-of-the-mill thieves and vandals, Martinson said he’s not
worried. A hitchhiking robot was destroyed in Philadelphia last year, bumming
out the Canadian researchers who built it. But Starship’s machines have 9
cameras, stream live video back to their base, and can easily call for
police, or other, backup, Martinson said.
“We can send other robots in the area. They would come to help the
robot in distress,” Martinson said.
Robots Helping Robots in Distress?
Color me skeptical on that one, especially at the speed of these things.
Down the road, who knows?
“D.C. Dixie” (my name), meet “DRU”, Domino’s Robotic Unit, your unmanned
pizza delivery robot.
Should “D.C. Dixie” be attacked, “DRU” will come to the rescue offering
food and drinks, perhaps even oil replacement and a lube job.
More seriously, will flying drones will win the battle of the delivery
robots, or is there’s a place for both?
Meet Concierge Connie
“Connie is a friendly and learning robot that can answer questions through
sorting evidence. This robot can answer typical hotel guest questions like
where to dine, what services the hotel offers and it can even talk about tour
packages. (Photo:IBM)”
Tech Times reports Hilton Hotels Teams Up With IBM For New Robot Concierge
Connie.
Scientists have predicted that jobs intended for humans will soon be
conquered by machines — well, Hilton Hotels has already started using robots.
Considered the first of its kind, Connie is a friendly robot concierge
developed by IBM.
Named after the hotel chain’s founder, Conrad Hilton, Connie is a
2.5-foot-tall Aldebaran Nao robot equipped with IBM Watson and WayBlazer
intelligence. As a result, it is capable of answering dozens of routine
questions that are usually asked to front desk officers like where to dine,
arrangement of tours and which transportation to use.
“We’re focused on reimagining the entire travel experience to make it
smarter, easier and more enjoyable for guests,” said Jonathan Wilson, vice
president, product innovation and brand services of Hilton Worldwide.
The Hilton robot concierge is equipped with a combination of Watson APIs
like Dialog, Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech and Natural Language Classifier.
It can answer a wide array of questions typically asked by new guests like
hotel amenities, hours of operation, services and tour packages.
The robot is a “learning” robot, which means that with more guest
interactions, the more it absorbs pieces of information, develops its answers
and adapts to all questions asked. The hotel staff can also access the
robot’s database to improve answers and responses.
Meet Sophia, a Hot Robot Beauty Who Agrees to “Destroy Humans”
Medical Daily discusses Sophia, The Robot And Future Health Care Worker, who
makes her debut at SXSW Interactive.
Move over, Cher and Madonna. Within the pantheon of one-name only
celebrities, Sophia has arrived, making her debut at SXSW Interactive earlier
this month. According to all reports, she was a success, charming her way
into all nearby hearts. Like any starlet, though, she made a misstep or two.
When playfully asked if she wanted to destroy humans, she unhesitatingly
responded, “OK, I will destroy humans.”
Sophia is a robot, created by Dr. David Hanson, founder of Hanson
Robotics, which, according to its website, aims to bring to the market “the
most compelling and engaging humanlike robots with greater-than-human wisdom,
that are capable of developing a deep, trusted relationship with people.”
The destruction of mankind aside, Sophia certainly appears trustworthy
enough at least in most ways. After all, Hanson and his team designed her and
others of her kind to serve in health care, therapy, education, and customer
service jobs.
“My preference is to make them always look a little bit like robotics so
you know,” Hanson said. “Twenty years from now, I believe that human-like
robotics like this will walk among us. They will help us, they will play with
us, they will teach us, they will help us put the groceries away.”
Carls’ Jr. CEO Discusses All Robot Restaurants
Also consider Carl’s Jr. CEO Thinking About Putting Up Restaurant Where All
Workers Are Robots: Why?
We all know “why?” but let’s dive into the article anyway.
Inspired by fully-automated restaurant Eatsa, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s CEO
Andy Puzder said that he is thinking about putting up a restaurant where all
workers are robots instead of humans.
Eatsa has very few employees working as kitchen staff as all
front-of-house processes are computerized, which allows customers to order
and enjoy their meals without seeing a single person the whole time. Because
there are only a few employees on the payroll, the restaurant is able to make
investments in healthier food items.
In an interview with Business Insider, Puzder said that he would like to
try out something similar, such as an all-natural product restaurant that
will allow customers to order from a kiosk and pay through their credit card
or debit card. Customers will then be able to receive their food without
seeing a single person.
“With government driving up the cost of labor, it’s driving down the
number of jobs,” Puzder said, referring to the rising minimum wages across
the United States. The CEO added that automation will become more prevalent
due to this, with more locations including airports, grocery stores and
restaurants to resort to automation.
Puzder has previously written articles regarding his views on increasing
minimum wage, with the CEO criticizing the push for higher limits. According
to him, the higher minimum wage limits will not be relevant if companies will
be forced to hire fewer workers due to such changes, which would lead to
higher unemployment rates.
“If you’re making labor more expensive, and automation less expensive —
this is not rocket science,” Puzder said.
Moving towards automation will not be easy, Puzder concedes, especially in
the more complicated kitchen processes. However, for tasks such as taking
orders, robots could do even better jobs than humans.
“This is not rocket science.” Those who claim higher minimum wages do not
hurt job growth are simply out of their mind.
Joy for All Pets
Hasbro’s “Joy
for All” robots will not destroy humans but instead will snuggle up
affectionately. No litter box, just love, complete with VibraPurr.
I believe it’s safe to say we all know where this “Joy for All”
technology is headed.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
