Brave New World of Robotic Aides

"Social robots like me can take care of the sick or elderly."

"I can help communicate, give therapy and provide social stimulation, even in difficult situations."

"Someone said, 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself'. What did he know?"

Sophia, humanoid robot, Hanson Robotics laboratory, Hong Kong 

Sophia's makers plan an 'army' of robots in 2021  Sophia: still from video

"The world of COVID-19 is going to need more and more automation to keep people safe."

"Sophia and Hanson robots are unique by being so humanlike. That can be so useful during these times where people a re terribly lonely and socially isolated."

David Hanson, founder, CEO, Hanson Robotics

Sophia, explaining her functionality at the Hanson laboratory in Hong Kong, China.  Tyrone Siu, Reuters

 First introduced to the public in 2016, humanoid robot Sophia's existence and proposed purpose has become a matter of great public interest. Motivating the company to envision a new, expanded role for their humanoid robots to enhance human existence; the mass-production of robots like her for greater acceptance in expanded roles to serve the public interest in a huge variety of ways by the end of this year of 2021. An obviously opportune time and a need in an era of a global pandemic shutting down human commercial enterprise at a time of great medical-health stress.

The company has produced four models of their robots with the inclusion of Sophia, and plans if all goes well to begin a rollout of these models in expansive numbers through their factories during the first half of the year. A clear response to researchers' prediction that the pandemic would open up new commercial opportunities for the industry of humanoid robotics. Hanson himself envisions robotic solutions to the presence of the epidemic to be unlimited, to go well beyond health care.

That the robots could readily be trained to service positions within the retail and airlines industry to name but a few, means limitless possibilities. He can foresee his company producing and distributing for sale "thousands" of the robots, whose sale and usefulness could conceivably become a bedrock industry in this new age of enhanced caution due to communicable diseases. 

Founder and CEO of Hanson Robotics, David Hanson in his robotics laboratory  Tyrone Siu, Reuters

 

 Johan Hoorn, social robotics professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has worked with Sophia in his research. He feels that despite the fact that the robotics technology is in its relative initial stages, the pandemic could play the role of accelerating a human-robot relationship. "I can infer the pandemic will actually help us get robots earlier into the market because people start to realize that there is no other way", he explained.

Another robot named Grace is being launched by Hanson Robotics this year which has been developed specifically with the health-care sector in mind. But Hanson Robotics is not the only robotics firm with expansion ideas in mind. Soft Bank Robotics' Pepper robot was used in the fight against the pandemic to detect people who weren't following COVID safety rules by wearing face masks. Robotics company CloudMinds in China helped to set up a robot-operated field hospital during the novel coronavirus initial outbreak in Wuhan.

A report by the International Federation of Robotics stated that worldwide sales of professional-service robots had expanded by 32 percent to over $14 billion in sales between 2018 and 2019. Clearly, even prior to the current worldwide situation of grappling with the global pandemic, robot use was rising for any number of functions in a modernizing world of useful technology advances. 

 

Sophia, demonstrating a facial expression    Reuters