CES: The robots are coming

As applications for robotics expand far beyond toys and education, CES has become the central event for manufacturers and designers to showcase the cutting-edge of this sector.

To start with, LG and NAVER LABS will be showing off robots that help people get around. These robots will help provide guidance to customers as well as help carry items on their behalf.

LG’s PorterBot, ServeBot, and CartBot, first introduced to the public at CES 2018, are designed for environments like airports, hotels, supermarkets and malls to assist customers, transport luggage, deliver meals and carry groceries. The latest LG service robots have been updated with a more advanced autonomous navigation system as well as enhanced connectivity to allow for communication with mechanisms like elevators and automatic doors.

“The progress made by our entire robot lineup points to our commitment to deliver a robotic solution for the real world in the very near future,” says Jin Seo Roh, head of LG Robotics.

LG’s robots use AI technology to analyse customers’ usage patterns in order to learn and improve performance continuously. Equipped with touch displays and voice recognition to facilitate natural interaction with customers, these robots can handle complex tasks, such as answering questions and processing payments. The robots are designed to operate independently, navigating to a charging station when power runs low, returning to duty once fully recharged, and performing daily self-diagnosis and automatic reporting.

NAVER LABS will be showcasing an autonomous guide robot, called AROUND, that provides guidance in large indoor spaces, such as shopping malls, airports, and hotels. It also provides intuitive information through AR navigation. High-precision indoor maps, visual and sensor localisation are all serviced over NAVER’s robotics platform to provide accurate location sensing and to guide users to their destination via the best route.

AROUND has been manufactured to increase the popularity of indoor autonomous robots whose high price tag has, so far, prevented penetration in the consumer market. As a result of manufacturers making these robots more accessible, people will be able to experience a number of indoor autonomous robot services in different spaces and environments

Click here to see how robots are becoming caregivers of the future.

Thanks to films like the Terminator series and HBO’s Westworld, robots are often portrayed as antagonists for the human race. The upside is often under-reported. For example, work is being done with robots to help children with autism, elderly patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s, or people with special needs to develop social skills.

At CES 2019, a panel of experts will discuss these and similar issues regarding robotic caregivers. The panel is part of the RoboBusiness at CES event, produced by Robotics Business Review. A session entitled “Creating Tomorrow’s Robotic Caregivers” will discuss advances in assistive technologies.

Among the advances in the spotlight, RoboKind has created a series of robots that will help children with autism develop essential social skills, working with educators and experts to create a curriculum based on proven therapy methods.

A facially expressive humanoid robot, Milo, is designed “to be interesting and approachable for learners with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD),” according to RoboKind. As Milo speaks, icons are displayed on an LCD touchscreen on the robot’s chest that helps children better understand what it is saying.

Click here to see how sleeping next to robots will help people sleep better.

Somnox will be returning to CES this year with interesting new sleep robotics to help people fall asleep faster and stay asleep for longer.

A bean-shaped, pillow-sized “sleep robot” simulates human breathing techniques to accelerate the process of falling asleep. Its users snuggle the robot and subconsciously replicate the physical sensation of falling and rising of its breathing. The sleep robot also provides users with audio-engineered music like meditative music and ambient sounds. Personal preferences can be set during the day and provide a tailored approach to improving the user’s sleep during the night. Being huggable and soft, says its makers, the robot makes the user calmly doze off again.

“Knowing about sleep is nice and there are plenty of products out there that help track your sleep, but it’s time for a device like the Sleep Robot that actually does something to help you get to sleep,” says Julian Jagtenberg, co-founder of Somnox.