From home to healthcare, here are Robotic innovations transforming lives

Lovot is equipped with more than 50 sensors such as thermography, microphone array, obstacle detection, and touch sensor to generate motion and emotions in real-time.

From home, healthcare and manufacturing to transportation, education to the environment, robots have already touched almost all aspects of our lives. With rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and numerous other technologies, robots are becoming more capable, and affordable.

Here are some of the robotic innovations that, in the not-so-distant future, will become widespread and change the way we live and work forever, making lives more convenient and meaningful.

Service Robots

Guardian XO 

Delta Air Lines, in partnership with Sarcos Robotics, has developed a first-of-its-kind wearable robotic exoskeleton, the Guardian XO, a battery-powered industrial robot combining human intelligence with the power of machines.

The robotic suit that can be donned and doffed unassisted in less than 30 seconds may enable a worker to lift up to 90kg (200 pounds) repeatedly for up to eight hours at a time without strain or fatigue or injury. 

Designed specifically for use in industries where lifting and manipulation of heavy materials or awkward objects are required, the robotic suit will help industries enhance their operational performance, whilst simultaneously improving workplace safety.

Potential uses at Delta could include handling freight at Delta Cargo warehouses, moving maintenance components at Delta TechOps or lifting heavy machinery and parts for ground support equipment.

Bot Chef

Samsung Bot Chef is a collaborative robot or cobot with a sleek exterior that assists chefs as they whip up gourmet dishes. From chopping and whisking to pouring and cleaning, the AI-powered easy to use robot is optimized for kitchen use, making it ideal for homes and small businesses.

Based on the South Korean electronics giant's humanoid robot, SARAM, the lightweight robotic manipulator arm has six degrees of freedom that allow it to perform with a payload just enough to lift common kitchen items.

Using advanced internal and external sensors and an extensible AI-powered system, the kitchen-assistant robot works alongside a person safely, either by simple and intuitive voice command or via app-based controls.

Digit

Digit is a new bipedal robot developed by Agility Robotics as a new mobility option is strong enough to pick up and stack boxes weighing up to 40 lb (18 kg), as well as durable enough to catch itself during a fall using its arms to decelerate.

The main components and features of Digit include:

• Upper torso with integrated sensing, computing, and two 4-DOF arms.

• 2-DOF feet for improved balance and stability on a wide variety of surfaces.

• Sealed joints for all-weather outdoor operation.

• UN 38.3 certified battery for cargo air shipment.

• Comprehensive software API - leverage our controls and vision algorithms to develop end-user applications, or use Digit as a development platform and write your own low-level code.

Digit is available for pre-order now and will go on sale in the first quarter of 2020.

BellaBot 

At CES 2020 tech expo in Las Vegas, Chinese technology company Purdue Technology (PuduTech) introduced an autonomous food-delivery robot, BellaBot, with interactive capabilities and numerous expressions.  Equipped with multiple sensors and a new modular chassis, the cute cat-like robot stops at any angle as soon as it counters any obstacle.

Sporting innovative bionic design, Bella shows dozens of exclusive original expressions. For example, when a customer touches its ears for the first time, it expresses happiness, revealing a cute expression on the display, but when the customer repeatedly touches Bella, it may show an angry expression. The new touch interaction and AI voice module that supports hundreds of exclusive contextual dialogue content, make the cute robot more interesting.

Emotional Robots

Jennie

Jennie, an animatronic dog from Tombot has been designed to help individuals, families, and communities cope with many health adversities including depression, anxiety, stress, dementia, autism and more.

The Tombot puppy is projected to be released by 2021-end.

Lovot

Japanese company Groove X has designed Lovot, a family robot that can move autonomously around the house, recognize people or individuals and make real-time decisions. Designed with high privacy and security features, Lovot is equipped with more than 50 sensors such as thermography, microphone array, obstacle detection, and touch sensor to generate motion and emotions in real-time.

The high-quality fabric with excellent elasticity and an air circulation system that circulates warmth throughout the body creates a warm and soft touch skin, giving it a sense of life. The robot is equipped with a digital synthesizer that simulates the vocal cords and generates sound dynamically. Other than identifying individuals and monitoring house, LOVOT also holds great potential in the field of education, especially for early childhood education.

Educational Robot

ROYBI

AI startup ROYBI has developed Roybi Robot, a language teaching intelligent companion. Using artificial intelligence, the smart robot analyses a child's learning progress and offers personalized language tutorials and STEM skills via interactive conversations and games.

With over 500 lessons, songs and stories to choose from, ROYBI keeps children engaged with best-tailored lessons based on their pace and interests. It recognizes up to 3 different faces to initiate conversations and also detects emotions to know if the child is happy or sad.

In addition, ROYBI comes with a privacy cover for the camera and powerful speakers with adjustable sound. ROYBI records and stores all information securely and anonymously on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Personalized robot

Samsung Ballie

Ballie is a small, rolling robot designed to be an all-around life companion of the users. The fitness assistant-cum-mobile interface understands users, responds to their unique needs and also acts as a remote control for their smart home devices.

According to Samsung, Ballie seeks solutions for people’s changing needs while maintaining stringent data protection and privacy standards.

Robocare’s Bomy 2

Bomy 2 is a smart care robot that provides various services and functions to prevent dementia. BOMY-2 is able to exercise cognitive training through a number of contents for improving brainpower. 

The robot comes with a user-friendly design and User Interface (UI), Cognitive Training Games to prevent dementia and various alarm services. It also comes packed with functions of “emergency call service” and “Personal alarm service” for the elderly. The main functions of the device include:

Personalized Cognitive Training Services

• can be used at home
• through a Big Data, one-on-one personalized services for cognitive training
• cognitive training games for preventing dementia

Care Services

• personal alarms
• interaction activities between human and robot
• medications support alert

Emergency Call Services

• activity monitoring function for the elderly
• an emergency phone call, such as 911, 211, registered family member or friend

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)