Computer Shopper - UK (2020-05)

ISSUE387|COMPUTER SHOPPER|MAY2020 109

canhelpreducethephysicalburden
andhealthriskstohumans.
Bill Ray, an analyst at Gartner,
explains. “This does allow fora
reduction in the workforce,aseach
worker can do more,but it also
requires that workers are better
trained so theycan work efficiently
with the robots. Workers also need
flexibility,asmundane and repetitive
tasks are increasingly done by machine,
so the humans will become managers
of arobotic workforce.”

GETMOVING
At the moment, robots tend to be static
or move on aset course. Forexample,
rather than work wholly autonomously,
Ocado’s swarmof grocery-ferrying
robots are programmed to work
together as ateam, so if one fails,
the whole systemstops. But robots
are starting to get better at moving
around, spurred by better batteries,
smarter computer vision helped by
laser-guided ‘lidar’systems and radar,
as well as the rise of ubiquitous
connectivity,expanded via 5G.

“Wecan saythat robots are getting

more mobile,across every setting,

which can largely be attributed to

improvements in battery technology,

greater awareness of their surroundings

and improved connectivity,” says Ray.

“Lidar gives an extremely accurate

3D model of the surrounding area,

enabling arobot to navigatewithgreat

accuracy.Radar is also getting cheaper.

This kind of sensing enables arobot

(mobile or stationary) to build a

more completepicture of the

environment around it.”

That’s one step forward that gives

robots better mobility,but theyhave

another challenge: robots of today

aren’t flexible thinkers. They’re

controlled and programmed directly by

humans –such as with surgical robotics

or in factories –orhandle one specific

task. But that’s slowly changing.

Rethink Robotics’ ‘Baxter’

could be trained by anyone to

completebasic tasks, simply by

walking it through anew

process, just as you would a

new hire; the company went out

of business in 2018, but its rivals

Universal Robots and ABB make

similar cobots that can be

programmed formultiple uses,

suggesting aroutetowards a

more generalist trainable robot.

The advent of machine

learning and AI means that

trend will continue.

“Traditional industrial

robots are designed to

WOULD YOU WELCOME A ROBOT INTO YOUR HOME?

Robotsarealreadyinourhomes,butaswithmanufacturing,they’renotflexibleinoperation:wehavesingle-taskRoombasrather

thanmultitaskingrobo-butlers.Thatcouldbesettochange,withAImakingroboticssmarter,andconnectivitylettingthemmoveto

anycornerofyourhome.Herearethreeproductsthatpointtothefutureofrobotsinthehome

SAMSUNGBALLIE

Ballie is aunique-looking robot that, as the

name suggests, is awee ball. Samsung

videos showit rolling around asleeping

home –ominous as that maysound –and

controlling smart home features such as

opening curtains. After interacting with a

human via abuilt-incamera, it follows its

owner around the house (again, creepy),

helping with her yoga position, entertaining

her dog by showing it Yo uTube videos, and

telling the Roomba to clean up amess. Is the

future of home robotics arolling camera to

control the smart home? That remains to be

seen, as Ballie is still aprototype,sono

release dateorprices are yet available.

ELEPHANTROBOTICSMARSCAT

Youknowhowcatsneverdowhatyouwant

orexpect?Thisoneisdifferent.Thisfully

autonomous,open-sourcebioniccatis

programmable,controlledwithaRaspberry

Pi 3, and features both object recognition

and voice recognition –this cat can

understand ‘come here’, unlike thereal

thing. What’s it for? The makers sayitcan

play with toys or even your real pet cat, and

would make agreat tool forteaching young

students howto programme.Beyond that,

it’s as delightfully useless as areal cat.

MarsCat will start shipping this spring

following asuccessful Kickstarter campaign,

and will eventually retail at $1,299.

LOVOTS

Thatnamelooksalittlelike‘love’crammed

ontothefrontof‘bots’,andthat’swith

goodreason:Lovotsare‘emotional’robots

that want to be loved by you, which sounds

abit like the plot to ahorror film. Lovots are

small softtoy-like creatures on wheels with

360-degree cameras topping their cute

faces. That allows themto navigate your

home,while facial recognition means they

can see it’s you. And, the makers claim,

when theyrecognise you they’ll start to

love you, and then they’ll demand your

attention and followyou around. If you have

two,for some reason, and give one ahug,

theother will come and ask forasqueeze,

too. It’s like having kids, but without all the

biological hassle.Sofar,they’re only

available in Japan forabout £2,100 plus a

monthly subscription.

⬇Robotscan

help with surgical

precision in

healthcare