The robots are coming for you! And they want to be your friend.
After a generation that was technically great but failed to hit scale, a new generation of social robots is coming.
Until recently, every social robot created was touted as a general-purpose platform, where the flexibility, the lack of a specific use case, or even a target demographic, was considered a benefit. In effect, what it did was passing the buck to the next company to figure out how real value can be derived from robots. As a result, they only really functioned as a novelty item in commercial settings, and the only places where they had staying power were in education and research settings, where robots like the Nao, Furhat, and Pepper had a real impact, and continue to be popular. This general-purpose platform approach hasn’t worked in the sense of getting real commercial scale.
And while I understand why the ‘general purpose platform’ idea was appealing at the time, commercially I think the strategy should have been to go the other way around: real value and real need have to be proven first. This should be achieved by creating a robot for a single, clear purpose, where all the effort is put in solving a burning issue for a large customer group. Once it has been proven that a robot can add real value for one use case, it should become clear that there are many other areas where this would be the case, and attention can start to shift to the question of how you can address every next use case with less effort, i.e., this is where a robotic platform solution becomes a strong value proposition.
So, I am incredibly happy to see not just one but a whole generation of new social robots all created with a much clearer purpose, that is, a clear way in which they are going to benefit the end-user directly. That will drive adoption and thus growth - not just for the individual robots, but for the social robot sector as a whole. Below are five social robots that really excite me (in alphabetical order):
Richtech’s ADAM - ADAM looks like it has come straight out of the film Big Hero 6 - slightly lumbering but strangely friendly, the purpose of ADAM is again entirely clear and singular: ADAM is a barrista. One you don’t have to tip! ADAM just needs to work on its social skills - it doesn’t really interact with people yet other than serving them, so don’t replace your bartender with ADAM just yet.
Engineered Arts' Ameca - Engineered Arts have always taken a very different approach to making robots. They are probably the most social of all of them, and their purpose is very clear too. Their previous robot, the Robothespian, enshrined those values in the robot’s name: a thespian is another word for an actor. The full focus is therefore on life-like movements, both of the body and the face. Ameca is so life-like that it can become slightly eerie - it is certainly the best robot out there to test the uncanny valley.
Intuition Robotics' ElliQ - what this robot lacks in appearance and mobility, it makes up for with the clarity of its mission. Targeting ageing people, addressing loneliness. It's designed to deliver contactless health measures such as heart rate and blood pressure from its camera and has features to set reminders and provide other health support, allowing people to live independently for longer. The functionality of a screen makes things like telehealth and social interactions with loved ones possible.
Enchanted Tools' Mirokai - what stands out immediately about the Mirokai is that this robot looks like an android, but instead of having two legs, it moves about on a single ball the size of a football. It makes the robot highly versatile. The Enchanted Tools founders come from the famous stable of Aldebaran, and their vision is for Miroki and Miroka, both members of the ‘Mirokai’ family, to provide logistics, information, and social interaction. To make the logistics flawless, they took steps to design the world for the robot: it comes with handles that you attach to whatever needs transporting and which are easily recognised and grasped by the Mirokai. While they are still exploring a number of use-cases, the benefit of a robot performing basic logistic tasks whilst also providing information makes it an obvious value-add in settings such as hospitals, care homes, and similar public-private spaces. Enchanted Tools are well funded and have a stated goal of producing 100,000 robots by 2023.
Embodied’s Moxie - this cute robot is on a mission. A mission to teach children social and emotional skills. With its cute eyes and friendly voice, it delivers a range of games, stories, and life lessons that help children develop their emotion regulation, practice problem-solving, develop healthy relationships and become more confident. Focusing on children with special educational needs, the potential benefit to both children and their parents is massive.
All of these robots have stated aims to be truly social and take into account their users' emotional and cognitive states. There is still a good way to go before that is a reality.
BLUESKEYE AI’s B-Social SDK is designed to help developers on that journey, allowing them to build a more responsive and empathetic social robot, by recognising voice activity, social gaze signals, head actions, and expressed emotion, efficiently on edge. B-Social is a software development kit (SDKs) which comes with easy-to-use APIs and documentation that make integration into your social robot as easy as 1 2 3.
Images used in the graphic are in courtesy of:
Adam - Richtech Robotics - ADAM | Robot Bartender | The Exciting Robotic Worker
Mirokai - Enchanted Tools - Mirokaï a bot on a self-balancing ball
Ameca - Engineered Arts - Ameca - Engineered Arts