The world is already prepared for the arrival of robots that, increasingly, are acquiring utilities of humans. Here we show you some of them.
They are viewed with some suspicion because of their impact on the labour market, but I am very afraid that we are doomed to get along with them. They will always need workers of flesh and blood to take care of them. Of course, in robotics specialization is already an unquestionable reality. There are androids capable of sewing shirts at breakneck speed, serving a cocktail to the taste of the consumer, taking care of children and the elderly or conducting an orchestra.
Probably Yumi he did not convey much emotion with his baton in the performance of a famous aria by Giuseppe Verdi, but the musicians who attentively followed the movements of his metal arm applauded his work. Put to experiment, the Russian Dmitry Morovoz, he invented an orchestra of robots that followed the instructions of its director, through integrated circuits. According to eyewitnesses of the experiment, it was a technological success, but musically a failure.
During the celebration of the International Automation Fair recently held in Taipei (Taiwan), a strange bartender named MixBot he took note of orders, prepared cocktails a la carte and served them to customers without a bad gesture and with proven efficiency.
Yumi, Dimitriy Morovoz’s orchestra, or MixBot are current examples of the incorporating robots into the everyday scene, performing tasks that seemed reserved for the creativity and professionalism of human beings. However, androids every day surprise us with incredible capabilities. To check it out, let’s go over some of themat the same time we also discover some of its limitations.
Robots with human utilities
The University of Switzerland managed to develop a few months ago edible robots, intended to be metabolised after delivery of medicinal products in depressed or rough areas.
In the agricultural and livestock sector, androids are finding fertilized land. Signature Abundant Robotics, as explained in this same blog a few months ago, it has a apple picking robot, using a vacuum suction technique. The above-mentioned one has attached a nozzle capable of sucking the forbidden fruit without causing the slightest damage to it. Then there are the robot gardeners, powered by solar energy, or those who capture the movements of the cooks and they successfully copy their recipes.
There is also a very popular robot in poultry farms. It is a contraption that runs through the corridors of chicken farms to check the temperature and study the movements of birds. Thanks to this robot, which monitors cages and conveyor belts, it is possible to avoid contagions and diseases.
Those of us who dedicate ourselves to journalism must also get used to see in the newsrooms robots that transform data into texts that do not require thorough analysis, but a greater visibility of that information on Google or on social networks. A robotic journalist can generate, even with help, 30,000 local news per month. In 2014, the agency Associated Press it used a software capable of generating information on quarterly financial results.
In Japan, cradle of robotics, there are hotels with androids that attend at the reception or take your suitcase to your roomwhose door will be opened by facial recognition. 90% of the staff in a Japanese hotel are mechanical and articulated workers. There are also android co-drivers in that country who give conversation and advice to those who go behind the wheel. Toyota is the mother of these creatures of 10 centimeters in height and 138 grams in weight. They can be purchased at the modest price of 350 euros and have conversation for an hour and a half.
In the food sector, recognition should be given to the work carried out by the pizza delivery robots. These small machines, designed by Starship Technologies, very much resemble tiny SUVs-barely 60 cms. high and 18 kilos in weight – and have already begun to distribute Domino’s pizzas in some German cities, although for the moment they are being closely watched by an employee. I suppose so that no one will appropriate the merchandise attached to their backs.
I have left for last the “sewing robot”, able to sew 800,000 t-shirts a day. Answers to the name of “Sewbot” and has been created by the company Software Automation in Atlanta. It reduces production costs and acts, according to its creators, quickly and accurately.
One more proof of how difficult it is to compete with robots like that next door.
