As I travel the country with our fleet of robots the most
frequently asked question about any of the robots is always what does it do?
What would I use it for? This question is asked at every robot encounter and
about every robot we provide. So, for this writing I will answer that question
about/for the NAO Robot from SoftBank Robotics. I will address other robots in
later writings. More than 10,000 NAO robots are in use in over 50 countries. So
that fact alone should be an indication of the robustness of NAO’s versatility,
utility and functionality.
But first let’s address a few foundational issues that
surround these questions. Underlying the posited questions is usually the
feeling that robots are ‘job stealers’ and that they are a threat. What most
are really asking is the question: ‘Will it eventually take my job away?” Well
the fact is that in certain job classes that may very well be true. However,
the job creation that I see being generated in the robot sector and what I
observe in the scope of unfilled jobs ‘going calling’…employment opportunities
abound. Just this week a major retailer was stuffing doors in our neighborhood
with ‘We Have Jobs Open” flyers! While this is a good question, without robots
in our industrial future, our economy will falter severely and that will be
worse for jobs. My assessment is robots are a good thing.
This next issue I have found to be very, very interesting.
Robots without a ‘human like face’ don’t seem to generate the angst that robots
with a ‘head and face’ do. No one objects to the ‘robot’ that washes their
dishes or their clothes. Or, the oven that cooks their food or makes their toast
or their morning cup of coffee or caries them like an elevator does in a
building. Well those are ‘machines’ well not really they are a class of robots,
I think. It is when we add a ‘face’ and seeming intelligence for ‘conversation’
that things get edgy. So, when you can talk to your dish washer are you
concerned that one day it will say “I am not working today!”? Or, “You need to
do a better job scraping the residue from the dinner plates!” Upon reflection,
I clearly remember the angst that surrounded microwave ovens when they arrived
on the scene. “How does it do that?!” “Are we all going to die of radiation
poising?” Try and find a home today without a microwave. The same adoption
curve will happen for in home social robots. I therefore think it is the ‘head
and face’ motif that makes us think that the robot differently and that it may
have a sinister purpose of its own making.
Let us now turn to the actual question at hand and answer
the “So what is it used for?” question.
Here are my top ten uses of the NAO Robot:
1.
HOSPITALS:
as Pediatric Medical Assistants clinically proven to reduce pain and fear in
children that face medical procedures.
2.
AUTISM
Therapies: as mediated behavior intervention vehicles that help unlock the
social communications capacities of children on the autism spectrum.
3.
SCHOOLS: as
a STEM Robotics learning platform
4.
SENIOR
LIVING COMMUNITIES: as social assistants and exercise therapy leaders
5.
LIBRARIES:
as a ‘makerspace’ resource for community education and robot access
6.
RETAIL: as
an art expert in an art gallery showroom
7.
SUPRMARKETS:
as product educators
8.
BANKS:
as customer service agents
9.
TRADESHOWS:
as in-booth sales agents
1.
ENTERTAINMENT:
as performers in stage and dance performances
I think the above gives a pretty good answer
to the question and presents a view of the ever-growing utility of robots of
the ‘social/collaborative’ class such as a NAO. In some of the above cases such
as in pediatric medical care and autism the robot actually does what it does
better, and delivers a better impact than humans. Robots are rising for sure.
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