Summary
- Robots are increasingly integrated into daily life, with various applications in healthcare, education, and more.
- Robots are utilized in public spaces for inventory management, security, and even in restaurants.
- Despite challenges like privacy concerns and potential job displacement, robots are likely here to stay and offer benefits like convenience.
Robots may one day become a constant companion in our daily lives. These machines are functional and utilitarian by nature, like delivery bots and autonomous security guards. But what does our future look like with robots in public spaces?
Embracing Robots as Part of Our Daily Lives
You can like them or hate them. It’s undeniable that robots are slowly becoming more and more a part of our daily existence as humans. It’s no longer a concept or a scene in a sci-fi movie. Unless you’re ready to wake up one day and find out the robots have taken over—and you’re suddenly their unpaid intern. Kidding… (I think). It’s becoming real, and you may as well get used to it.
Robots have come a long way in fields like environmental science (environmental monitoring), healthcare (for surgery assistance), transportation (self-driving cars), education (AI teaching assistants), and many others, by lending their amazing capabilities to help improve processes, fix issues, and solve problems.
Though the cost of robotics is decreasing in a lot of cases, advanced robotics for the average everyday person (e.g., caregiving robots and home assistants) is still expensive and not widely accessible right now. Except for maybe basic home robotics like robot vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers.
However, when the prices of goods and manufacturing drop to meet a larger demand (just like what happened with TVs), things become much more affordable for the average person. So when it comes to robotics, it’s only a matter of time.
There are, however, some robotic machines available that can be used in the home for cooking, cleaning, and to some extent, even caregiving. For example, there is a nursing home in Roseville, Minnesota called The Estates nursing home that has robots to help care for residents living with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The robots were introduced to deal with staff shortages in the area and these robots can even engage in conversations, tell jokes, and take part in reminiscence therapy.
So what’s all the fuss about being scared of robots, huh? Perhaps it’s the effects of watching too many bad sci-fi movies. Embracing this assistive technology can help you reap many benefits, including enhancing your quality of life, improved security, as well as increased productivity.
Are Robots Everywhere?
Robots might still feel a bit futuristic, but they’re popping up more and more in our everyday lives. You can see a lot of these machines everywhere (well, depending on where you live), like in shopping malls, restaurants, airports, hospitals—you name it.
Robots have definitely found a home when it comes to warehousing and inventory management. Since they can be equipped with sensors and RFID technology, they can scan items on shelves for real-time tracking and keep everyone aware of restocking needs, and update the inventory databases as they continue to monitor the shopping floor. With just a click of a key, voilà, complete inventory data is presented right in front of your very eyes. I think I saw one at Walmart the other day—I really should have taken a picture.
Physical security is one of the top concerns, especially in busy places like airports and transportation hubs. This is where these helpful robots come in, like security robots that patrol terminals at some airports, as well as facilitate a smoother travel experience for people with autonomous luggage carriers. Not just that. Some restaurants now have robots that take your order, serve, and even cleaner robots, keeping the service up and running. This is more common in places like Japan and China, though not yet the norm.
The K5 is an autonomous security robot that uses AI and patrols commercial properties and public spaces around the clock.
Are We Ready For This?
There are mixed thoughts from the public when it comes to robots being integrated into public spaces. You may embrace and take full advantage of the benefits such as convenience, entertainment, and efficiency. Or you may even remain uncertain about its security and practical use.
This includes job displacement, especially in highly industrialized and e-commerce markets. Do you really think they can take all our jobs? It definitely seems that way with artificial intelligence, at least. However, there are also cybersecurity challenges when it comes to robots that can seem quite scary, especially with the fear of hacking and malfunction in robots, posing serious risks to public safety.
Pepper, a robot by SoftBank Robotics, can answer questions from customers and provide knowledge.
Despite the concerns, there are still many cities that actively promote and deploy these robots in public spaces as they recognize the potential improvement in urban services, transportation, and infrastructure.
Eventually,I think public sentiment will evolve as time goes by. I believe that seeing the benefits and convenience these robots provide is likely to turn a skeptic into an advocate, especially if robots become more accessible for home use. Could you imagine spending your evening just switching your robot cleaner on, and having it clean your whole house by the time you and your family have finished watching Netflix?
Related
What Can We Expect to See With Robots in the Future?
Handling complex tasks will likely continue to be outsourced to robots. You know that self-driving cars are becoming more common, but what do you think about self-driving trains? Autonomous public transportation could also include more self-driving taxis. Delivery robots can also have autonomous capabilities, which can navigate the streets or sidewalks when delivering packages or food.
Starship robots deliver hot food, groceries, and industrial supplies. They use a combination of cameras, sensors, and machine learning to navigate the world.
Using robots as a means of social interaction can help decrease loneliness, improve stress in both adults and children, and reduce pain across their lifespans. With the loneliness epidemic now present in older adults around the world, robots can potentially help people looking for companionship.
Public infrastructure could also be consistently maintained by cleaning streets as well as environmental monitoring with the use of robotics. There are many more uses for robotics, and the technological revolution is continuing on a path of higher advancement at a fast rate. We even have micro-robotics, (which is typically in the size range of insects,) coming into play.
RoboBees, autonomous flying microrobots with potential uses in surveillance, crop pollination, and search and rescue.
Continued growth in advancement presents the possibility of the permanent presence of robots not only in public spaces but in our lives in general as well. Would life begin to look like a sci-fi movie?
Robots Are Here—But They Bring Some Big Challenges
Privacy, security, safety, and employment are among the things you may be worried about. As robots are equipped with sensors and cameras, unintended data breaches may compromise your personal and confidential information, which can then be sold or used for other nefarious reasons. You may be aware by now that data breaches are common, so robots may become just another thing for hackers to exploit.
You may also wonder about the use of drones by law enforcement agencies to monitor public activities, which brings the possibility of intrusive surveillance as well as potential misuse of the data that is being collected.
For most of our history, it’s people that have done most of the work. That’s only shifted a little in recent decades as technological advancements have become more available. Companies have integrated autonomous machines into their production lines to cut down the costs of human labor, and automation is just becoming more widespread.
Whatever side you’re on, robots will likely continue to be integrated as part of your life. It may be a hard pill to swallow, but that’s the truth. The reality is that we have to learn to co-exist with these machines, whether we like them or not. It’s just a matter of how you look at things. Robots can be useful and helpful machines that can elevate our daily lives. So perhaps we ought to give them a chance.
