i3 - July/August 2019 - 18

Tech

By Dave Wilson

PIPE LINE

Researching Robots

Lesley Rohrbaugh, director of
market research at CTA, presented new research which
found 75% of people believe
robots will impact their daily
lives by 2024. Overall, 84% of
U.S. adults have a positive
view of consumer robots.
Dr. Henrik Christensen,
director of the University of
California at San Diego
Contextual Robotics Institute,
presented his latest roadmap
for U.S. robotics. He said in
certain districts in San Diego,
the first responder to arrive
onsite after a 911 call is a
drone - a flying robot.

The Concept of
Time-to-Boredom

If a robot can do
something today
that it couldn't
do yesterday,
consumers will
likely keep using it.

JULY/AUGUST 2019

Christensen said that people
can become bored with
robots after the initial novelty wears off. The key to success for robots is for them to
become part of people's daily
routines. With entertainment
robots, time-to-boredom is
measured in hours instead of
days, he added.
One thing that helps make
vacuum cleaner robots successful, according to
Christensen, is their ability
to be customized. Many
owners of vacuum robots
"dress up" their devices to

give them personalities, and 65% name their
robot vacuums.
When it comes to caring for the elderly, robots
at home are more cost-effective than nursing
homes.Christensen found that elderly people
want robots to help them find the TV remote
control and their glasses more than help getting
water or medication.

Beyond Traditional Applications

During the panel "Use Cases and Applications of
Robotics in the Home," Dr. Philip Roan, senior
engineer of robotics at Bosch, said it's hard to
make robots lifelike. It's important to set consumers' expectations so they appreciate what a
robot can do for them, and don't get frustrated by
what it can't.
Andrew Mitrak, director of marketing at
HaptX, said robots also can expand humankind's
reach worldwide. He demonstrated how a robotic
hand with haptic sensors can be paired with a
glove that uses signals from the robotic hand to
provide haptic feedback to its wearer. The person
wearing the glove can then control the robotic
hand to perform complex tasks, even if the
robotic hand is on the other side of the world or
somewhere humans can't access. While some are
concerned about robots filling jobs that used to
be done by humans, Mitrak said robots also make
it possible for humans to do jobs they were incapable of doing before.
Elnaz Sarraf, founder and CEO of ROYBI, discussed the importance of constantly updating the
content on consumer robots to address time-toboredom. If a robot can do something today that
it couldn't do yesterday, consumers will likely
keep using it. She also said it's important to
decrease costs to increase consumer adoption.
When it comes to using consumer robots at
home, Sarraf said people in Japan are much farther along than people in the U.S. She explained
how Japan's culture is different and how people
in Japan believe even objects have a spirit. Thus,
Japanese people are more likely to establish emotional bonds with their robots, not so different
from Americans naming their vacuum robots.
With the tremendous promise ahead, CTA
will continue to work to grow the robotics segment of the industry.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Courtesy of Roybi

hat is a robot? A half-day session on robotics at
CTA's Technology & Standards Forum in San
Francisco in May addressed this and other topics. To an economist, a robot is anything that replaces
manual labor. To others, robots are devices that sense,
signal, move, and have energy and intelligence. No matter how they're defined, there's no question that robots
are taking the world by storm - and by swarm.

i3 - July/August 2019

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