A shift in the role that robots play in our lives

When it comes to humans and robots it’s a complicated relationship and we just might have our priorities mixed up.

Pepper, the humanoid robot from Japan's telecommunication giant Softbank

Robots hold a unique place in the human imagination. We are fascinated by the prospect of interacting with automatons, yet they also inspire apocalyptic visions of humanity subjugated by robotic overlords.

When it comes to humans and robots it’s complicated, a Frankenstein sort of relationship that forces us to think about the meaning of life, creation and mortality.

Robots have been a fixture at an industrial level for almost two decades but there’s now a push to bring them into the consumer space. But what sort of role will these robots play? Will they simply undertake menial tasks or be something more?

Last year, Japan’s SoftBank teamed up with Aldebaran Robotics to introduce Pepper, a robot with more than a modicum of personality and, according to Softbank and Aldebaran, capable of distinguishing the nuances of human speech and the emotions behind our words.

It’s a work in progress, but in March Softbank is set to populate an entire shop with Peppers to provide guidance, product advice and even indulge in small-talk with customers.

It’s likely that once the novelty wears off, customers will decide that they aren’t exactly comfortable taking directions from a robot, but the data gathered will be invaluable for the Aldebaran team when they spruce up Pepper’s next iteration.

This process of interaction and subsequent product improvement is, over time, likely to lay the foundation for wholesale integration in the consumer space. And while Pepper represents one possible facet of the retail experience of the future, the robot revolution is under way in homes as well, primarily through the spread of robotic appliances such as iRoomba, a robot vacuum cleaner; Nanda Clocky, a clock that forces the user to get up and find it to turn off its alarm; The Litter-Robot, a litter box that cleans itself.

These so-called robots seem little more than overpriced toys but for some in the world of robotics that’s exactly how things need to be.

Mikell Taylor, a systems engineer at Bluefin Robotics and a leader in the field, says that the emphasis always needs to be on function and seamless integration.

“If robotics is doing it right it should be cars that use robotics technology, appliances that use robotics technology and the company building them should be seen as an automotive company or an appliance maker,” Taylor says. “We should not think about how we are using robots in our homes but instead that we are using appliances using autonomous technology.”

Taylor’s slow-burn approach certainly makes sense and that’s pretty much what most of the research is centred on — natural language processing, visual data processing, pretty much anything that makes automated service delivery easier.

As for replicating the biomechanics of the human form, Taylor says there’s no need to fixate on creating a facsimile of the human body.

“Thanks to science fiction, people think that the ultimate robot will be like C-3P0 and there are a lot of people in the start-up and VC world who think that’s what they need to be striving for,” she says. “We are not ready for robot butlers, but I don’t think we need them yet.”

That may be true, but what role do we want them to play? Can robots become our pets, companions? Taylor contends that we may have the social construct upside down.

“One of my professors was once asked if he would build a robot to watch over his kids while he worked. He said absolutely not, he would rather build a robot that would do his work so he could spend time with his kids,” Taylor says.

“That’s an attitude that a lot of us don’t have when it comes to robots.”