Robots even in the soup: the coronavirus has accelerated the 'robolution' by 10 years
Arrive early before your flight to drink your favorite cocktail prepared by a robotic arm in the first autonomous bar without human presence of the airports. Order personalized food to strengthen your immune system made in a kitchen without cooks. EITHER spend a week in a hotel without the need to interact with any employees while a robot cleanses the air of impurities behind your back. Three seemingly beneficial actions that offer an opposite perspective from another angle. Consume at the airport enhancing the job insecurity in restoration, forget about the pleasure of a good human stew handed down from generation to generation or despise tourism where the warmth of the treatment increases the feeling of well-being during the stay.
“You speak with pride and interest when you say that the coronavirus will be a turning point to accelerate automation in society . Which are turning points in the evolution of automation. In a world endemic to Covid-19, robot proselytizers you affirm that businesses must automate to survive. But what kind of automation or robotics do you envision for us? ”, he wrote ironically Marius Robles , co-founder of Food By Robots , putting themselves in the “skin” of the robots. “From the point of view of the show, life under the pandemic has been a fair for street vendors of robot waiters, robotic chefs burger joints or fruit pickers, many of them unnecessarily anthropomorphized and operating at unacceptably low speeds. Listening and seeing this has been the trigger for an eternal offense.”
The " robosolution " either robotic revolution it always appeared as something new around the corner in the indeterminate future. By inertia we have left the great technological leap in the to-do drawer and now the pandemic has decided to accelerate without waiting for anything or anyone, with the fear of contagion as a backdrop . So, can it be said that the coronavirus has been the best ally of robots for large-scale implementation outside of the usual scenarios?
“Consumers have seen that can be a safer way of interacting than with a human , be it in a store, hotel or restaurant. In our case, we have seen a substantial increase in interest from customers , especially those who were skeptical and who have now decided to take a step forward. A lots of they want to introduce them in their organizations s but they don't know where to start”, they comment to Traveler.es from Food By Robots.
Trade, tourism, restaurants and now too ordinary citizens , see robotics in a better light by representing the perfect intersection between technology, progress and security . It is no coincidence that, according to official figures, $1.5 billion invested in Food Tech companies in the last two months . The lockdown was supposed to sharpen our senses to get back to the basics and the local, but deconfinement is accelerating the disdain for human contact.
Precisely Marius Robles had between his eyebrows the opening of the first robotic restaurant in Spain looking forward to earlier this year. A challenge that he has had to postpone until february 2021. Impossible Restaurant , as the place will be called, has suffered a unexpected stop with the coronavirus ; a break that, by the way, has been a balm to realize that ** the scenario has changed **. And it has changed for the better. “ The pandemic has given us peace of mind and has allowed us to reformulate the concept in greater depth. We are satisfied in the sense that it has been a advancing consumer mindset , who have jumped at the possibility of embrace automation and robotics in a complex sector such as the hospitality industry. Covid-19 has ratified that we are on the right track”, he assures.
The most curious thing is that, in this future robotic restaurant , Already social distancing was planned Before social distancing was on everyone's lips. "Social distancing was already observed in the sketches of our restaurant before the pandemic appeared, given the interaction with robots," says Marius Robles. “ Both at Area 51 (which is the most informal area) and in the bar itself (which we call robot bar ) or the great hall (called 1495 in homage to the year Leonardo Da Vinci devised his first sketch of a robot). To this is added that it is a fully adapted space so that 'in the back room' you can perform a service of take away either food delivery with the different operators. In this way, and before a second or third regrowth, our restaurant will be able to continue operating without practically altering its bases”.
Beyond the state of alarm and quarantine, the co-founder of Food By Robots acknowledges that there is something else that has delayed the project. “We assume that our restaurant concept did not exist , nor in its physical, technological or gastronomic structure. It may seem pretentious to say this, but it is so. Artificial intelligence will define many dishes , where most will have a innovative component with experimental ingredients . We are seeking to offer flavors and not only dishes, mostly aligned with personalized food. To this is added that the automation that we are developing and that integrates 12 robots has not been carried out in any restaurant to date”.
With the experience of other robotic restaurants in the world, Impossible Restaurant claims to have learned the lesson to solve the great problem of this business model: many curious people take a selfie or a funny photo with the robot on duty, and have a drink to never come back “ If the only thing that stands out about your automated restaurant is technology , no matter how efficient it is, it will be difficult for you to have repetition by customer . His memory will remain in a mere selfie with a robot waiter that brings you the dishes or a robotic arm that serves you a beer”.
The balance between initial surprise for the interaction with robots added to the final surprise for the quality of the dish. Only then can a robotic restaurant have a future . “I think the key is through find this balance . For this, it is absolutely essential to have a gastronomic offer extremely suggestive and attractive, I would even say unique, although I do not like to say this concept because practically everything is copyable and. And also, very importantly, it must be a 'safe' experience. Practically removing the human from the equation can allow us to have much higher quality and food safety controls in the preparation process and completely transparent to the diner.”
Precisely, removing the human from the equation is what worries most people . Democratizing the entry of robots into our lives is not will eliminate a lot of jobs? Does the implantation of robots in hotels and restaurants directly imply the loss of human labor? ¿Robots will pay taxes so that the entire economic system is sustained, more or less, as it has been up to now? Questions you receive in each interview simi wang , director of global sales of Keenon Robotics.
The case of this robotics company founded in 2010 is a great example of the meteoric expansion of robots. In just ten years it has gone from being a start up of four Chinese engineers to hiring more than 250 people. “ Most of our customers did not disrupt their employees' work with the addition of our robots . On the contrary, they hired more staff due to the increased flow of clients. People think that robots are replacing humans, however, they are just tools Wang says.
To understand the impact of its growth, all attention must be focused to the crown jewel . His star robot is called peanut and has been designed to make the work of the waiters and the experience of the diners more comfortable . With his half smile, stocky build, and helpful butler look, Peanut takes on the heaviest chores that no one wants to do in a restaurant. . Accompany the diner to the table, bring all the food to the table no matter how heavy it may be and collect all the dirty dishes in a minute. No glitches, complaints or breaks. There are already more than 10,000 Peanuts working at full capacity in different Asian restaurants, at the expense of these numbers continuing to grow so far this year, taking into account that more than 6,000 new units have been sold to 500 restaurants . 16,000 robots, which for many critics means the loss of 16,000 jobs that will no longer be filled by human labor.
“What our robots do is take over actions that require a greater amount of energy such as serving or picking up dirty dishes. By using robots, restaurant employees can spend more time interacting with customers. By facilitating the work of the waiters, restaurants can also lower their turnover rate by having happier employees Wang says.
They cannot and do not want to say it openly, but the outbreak of COVID-19 has improved its short-term business projections . "Definitely We feel the increased need due to the coronavirus . The number of potential clients we receive has tripled compared to last year, and many of them are from abroad.” Moreover, the situation surprised the creators of the robots themselves. “ We also did not expect that our robots could help so much in a new situation for everyone . At the start of the coronavirus, many hospitals were understaffed. All medical staff focused on spend all your energies on saving lives . The hospitals they were eager to find solutions, that's why they found us . Our robots helped with routine actions of assisting in deliveries or disinfecting plants . Participating in the prevention of COVID-19 has meant a lot to our company. We have found that more and more people recognize bots as a solution rather than a threat. We are making people's lives easier and safer."
But let no one think of the humanized robots of literature, cinema or series of dystopian futures, able to impersonate any person in image and likeness . “We have never believed that robots have to be similar to humans. Especially for the robots facing the public . Having a human-shaped design significantly reduces the functionality of robots,” he says. What they can't control at Kennon Robotics is what customers do once they buy their robots. “It is true that many of our customers change the appearance of our robots to more closely resemble the human form. It is important to emphasize that humanized robots attract customers at the beginning, however they will gradually lose freshness after a few months.”
Something with which the creators of the henn na hotel chain in Japan if we pay attention to the aspect of all the robots that operate in the world's first hotel staffed by robots . A female humanized robot that even wears the mask to give the feeling of security against possible viruses. "In the reception, guests will be greeted by multilingual robots that will help you with check-in paperwork . in the wardrobe, a robotic arm will store the luggage . Also, once guests' faces are registered with our facial recognition system , you won't have the hassle of carrying your room key or worry about losing it”, say its creators. “These fun moments of interaction with robots will warm the heart of the guest. The unique experience will take our guests one step further into the future”, they say in a forced effort to convey good treatment.
Although since Kennon Robotics they assure that not easy to enter markets outside of Asia for the current image of everything that comes from China. “With a Chinese background, it is not easy to enter local networks. We are now working with** Wow Bros in Korea and Softbank Robotics in Japan**, but we believe the same business model can work in Western markets.”
And it is that beyond the restoration, robots are also gaining a leading role in tourism . “Of course tourism will be one of the main early adopters ”, says Marius Robles: “Robots in the lobby is something that will be extended throughout the planet, and both in room service and show cooking and even serving the perfect cocktail according to the mood of the traveler. The very interaction that we carry out in the process of traveling will change with the little brother of robots: chatbots . They will lead us to have a much more personalized experience both in the booking process of our trips and guide us in our stay. They are still algorithms in both cases”.
But if all this sounds like science fiction to you, wait until you find out about the latest project that goes much further. avatar-in , which has recently received support from Sony and belongs to the ANA group, aims to make your avatar travel for you. ”It's telepresence technology . It may seem crazy to us, but surely during this confinement we have thought about it more than once. Imagine being able to go to places where it is impossible for you to reach and having the possibility of discovering new worlds and obtaining new experiences. . The project goes beyond the wonderful effect of traveling, seeks to help you in your daily life”.