A panel discussion on the future of robots, and how they can solve problems in society.
Panel
- Jérôme Monceaux, co-founder and CEO of Enchanted Tools
- Jens Fabrowsky, COO NEURA Robotics management team
- Chair: Monique van Dusseldorp
These are live-blogged notes from a session at NEXT25 in Hamburg. Posts will be improved over the next few days.
Jens: What are Neural robots? Understanding this involves the tricky difference between traditional robots and human-like ones. “Careful, it’s hot” means nothing to children until they have an experience of ignoring it. Cognitive robots can learn in a similar way, using sensors to learn from the environment. A robot can pick out a mouse on a table because it has experience with what a mouse is.
We have robot “gyms” where they can learn. I can show you YouTube videos of swimming, but it’s better to show you in the water. We do start with vision with robots. But they need to learn about the physical world.
Jérôme: I focus on the emotion and the user. It’s about the condition of the user, what they expect from the robot — and how they feel about that. With Pepper, we have focused on that. The robot needs to be accepted by the user, and controlled by the user. But it also has to have a mutual recognition of existence with the user. It’s a kind of contract that’s really important to exist in social places.
Psychology has the idea of a “shared attention object” — something we can both acknowledge, understand and interact around. It’s not just about emotion; it’s about the psychology of how people interact.
Robots filling needs in society
Monique: There are some jobs where we are short of people to do them, including the caring professions.
Jérôme: We have a labour shortage, so there’s an opportunity for an intelligent, cognitive machine. But how can we design it to match our vision for society?
Jens: We’ve developed an open robotics platform. Imagine that the iPhone only allowed apps from Apple. It would be a lesser world. So, our platform allows skills to be transferred from one robot to another. Some skills can be transferred from industrial robots to home robots.
The world is made for us, so we will need some form of human shape. A kitchen is a kitchen, and it makes no sense if it can’t reach the table-top. But you can also design it for the specific task it’s intended for.
Jérôme: We’re focusing on human-facing robots. Some people are using robots to greet people and guide them to the right place. For example, one institute is using robots to welcome children, and stay with them while they are x-rayed or scanned with tools, which means other people have to step out. It’s a way that robot emotion and psychology can have a real impact.
Robotic evolution
Jens: We started with industrial robots six years ago. For example, there was a shortage of welders. Robots can learn the skills in 10 minutes. Now we’re moving into more people-focused uses, such as hospitals that need to deliver food to people before it goes cold. In the automotive industry, we’ve seen a lot of standardisation to allow automation. We’ll see the same in other sectors.
I took a robot home for my daughter, and she’s started doing meaningful stuff with it. She’s automated things we never expected.
Jérôme: At some care homes, we have 50 people per two nurses. They can’t take time with helping people to bed — so could we increase their impact and care by automating much of what they do, so they can focus on the caring? We’re not ready for consumer use yet – but we will be in a few years.
Jens: In 10 years, there will be robots everywhere around us. If not, we’ll be the industrial museum of the world.
