Robots: Types, Trends, and Applications
While robots have been around for decades – nearly everyone is familiar with those mechanized behemoths that straddle vehicle assembly lines – advancements in robot technology or robotics, like the Robot Operating System (ROS), inexpensive sensors, open source development, and artificial intelligence, have accelerated robot development and deployment in ways hardly imagined only a few years ago.
As analyst Hans Peter Moravec reveals, “the term ‘robot’ derives from the Czech word ‘robota’ (‘forced labor’ or ‘serf’), used in Karel Capek’s [1920] play ‘R.U.R.'” Dystopian in tone, “The play’s robots were manufactured humans, heartlessly exploited by factory owners until they revolted and ultimately destroyed humanity.”1
Today, robots have a more positive image. They drive cars, perform surgery, conduct military operations, vacuum your house, and assume other responsibilities that were formerly the exclusive province of people. This robot revolution is both:
- Natural – technology will not be contained; and
- Planned – many, if not most, business leaders are eager to replace relatively high-cost human labor with low-cost robot labor.
Concerning the latter phenomenon, in a New York Times article, entitled “The Hidden Automation Agenda of the Davos Elite,” author Kevin Roose reported that “They’ll never admit it in public, but many of your bosses want machines to replace you as soon as possible. In public, many executives wring their hands over the negative consequences that artificial intelligence and automation could have for workers. But in private settings … these executives tell a different story: They are racing to automate their own work forces to stay ahead of the competition, with little regard for the impact on workers.”2
With the robot imperative firmly established, it is important for enterprise planners to understand the present state of robot technology, where the technology is headed in the near term, and how the technology can be employed to increase enterprise productivity and profitability.
This discussion starts with a definition. A robot is, according to analyst Greg Nichols, “a programmable machine that physically interacts with the world around it and can carry out a complex series of actions autonomously or semi-autonomously.”3 Rather than one technology, robotics lie at the intersection of multiple foundational technologies: mechanics, of course (that is, gears, pulleys, etc.), but also software, sensors, machine learning algorithms, and special materials.
Although robot technology has progressed in certain spheres (self-driving vehicles are a prominent example), a number of obstacles remain, often surrounding seemingly simple hand functions that humans perform precisely and effortlessly, and that robots do not.
As a general matter, the public is adopting a “wait and see” attitude toward robots and robotics, as the reality of robot technology has not begun to approach the visions of science fiction writers or business futurists. While some consumers, for example, have embraced robot vacuum cleaners, they would prefer – and are probably anxiously anticipating – the development of a robot maid capable of clearing a dinner table, loading a dishwasher, and stacking clean plates in a kitchen cupboard. Unfortunately, “Rosey the Robot” is still years, if not decades, away.
The good news is that robot technology is still evolving, use cases are expanding, and the prospects of successfully integrating robots into people’s business and personal lives are hopeful.
Robot Types
The vitality of today’s robot market can be seen in the sheer variety of robot types.
Collaborative
A collaborative robot, or cobot, is a kind of industrial robot that operates alongside humans in a shared workspace. Unlike traditional industrial robots of the type featured on vehicle assembly lines, for example, cobots are smaller, weaker, and offer no physical threat to the human workers who function with them. In fact, cobots are designed to stay out of the way of their biological partners, using sensors to detect human presence and slowing down or even stopping to prevent inadvertent collisions.
Owing to their small size and weight, cobots can be deployed virtually anywhere. They are affordable, easy to program, and ideal adjuncts to small – and even large – manufacturing operations. Recently, the cobot concept has been expanded by some to include digital collaboration via AI-powered programs like ChatGPT.
Consumer
Consumer robots, a category most famously represented by the Roomba vacuum cleaner, are designed to help household members with various chores and tasks, even exterior functions like mowing the lawn.
But, as Goldman Sachs reminds us, “Consumer/household applications are significantly harder to design due to more diverse application scenarios, diverse object recognition, more complicated navigation system, etc.”4
Drone
A drone is an unmanned vehicle designed to perform specific services, such as delivering packages, enabling Internet access, performing manual labor, and, most prominently, conducting surveillance operations.
While most people think of drones as flying objects, commonly designated as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), the drone market also encompasses:
- Unmanned ground vehicles (UGV)
- Unmanned surface vehicles (USV), e.g., boats or surface craft
- Unmanned underwater vehicles, e.g., submersibles or submarines
Exoskeleton
An exoskeleton, shown below, is a wearable machine. Powered by a system of electric motors, pneumatics, levers, and hydraulics, exoskeletons augment a person’s physical skills and endurance through robotics.
Army Researchers Evaluate a Prototype Soft Exosuit Device
Developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Source: US Army photo by Tom Faulkner
Humanoid
A humanoid, shown below, is a robot designed to resemble a person. Owing to their appearance, humanoids are considered “more approachable” than conventional robots, and better positioned to interact in human environments. They also help researchers replicate how people perform basic mechanical functions like walking and grasping.
Geminoid F
Source: Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, ATR
The goal for the general public – if not necessarily American industry – is to someday produce a “real-life” version of Robby the Robot from the film Forbidden Planet or Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reports that “The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently published detailed goals for the country’s ambitions to mass-produce humanoids by 2025. The MIIT predicts humanoids are likely to become another disruptive technology, similar to computers or smartphones, that could transform the way we produce goods, and the way humans live.”5
Medical
As described by analyst Erico Guizzo, “Medical robots [is] a broad category of robotic systems designed to assist people in hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, and in some cases, at home. One example of a medical robot is the da Vinci surgical system, designed to be teleoperated by a physician during minimally invasive procedures. Other examples include bionic prostheses like the Johns Hopkins’ MPL, powered exoskeletons like HAL and Ekso, and the robotic wheelchair iBot. There are also therapeutic robots to help children with autism, like QTrobot, and humanoids designed to assist the elderly, like Toyota’s HSR.”6
Security/Military
A security/military robot, shown below, is an autonomous or remote-controlled vehicle designed to:
- Perform routine security sweeps, in the manner of a security officer.
- Conduct military operations, sometimes lethal.
- Retrieve bombs and other dangerous munitions.
- Search for missing persons in hazardous locales.
Military Robot
Source: Quillette
Military robots, in particular, are highly controversial and, as defense experts argue, highly necessary, enabling a “new era of machine-driven warfare.” According to analyst Zachary Fryer-Biggs, “Critics, both inside and outside of the military, worry about not being able to predict or understand decisions made by artificially intelligent machines, about computer instructions that are badly written or hacked, and about machines somehow straying outside the parameters created by their inventors. Some also argue that allowing weapons to decide to kill violates the ethical and legal norms governing the use of force on the battlefield since the horrors of World War II.”
Despite any misgivings, every branch of the US Armed Forces is pursuing military robot development, “seeking ways … to harness gargantuan leaps in image recognition and data processing for the purpose of creating a faster, more precise, less human kind of warfare.”7
Software
Utilizing a technology called robotic process automation (RPA), a software robot is a program that performs basic, routine tasks – tasks that would otherwise occupy enterprise staff. Software robots can generally function faster, cheaper, and more accurately than their human counterparts.
Telepresence
A telepresence robot, shown below, is a remote-controlled, wheeled device with video and audio capabilities that stands in for a person. “Workers can use it to collaborate with colleagues at a distant office, and doctors can use it to check on patients.”8
Telepresence Robot
Source: Smashing Robotics
Vehicular
A vehicular robot, shown below, is an autonomous or remote-controlled vehicle designed to:
- Transport passengers, e.g., self-driving car.
- Carry cargo, e.g., self-driving truck.
- Explore distant, often hostile terrain, e.g., planetary rover.
Mars Opportunity Rover
Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Xenobot
A xenobot, shown below, is a “biological robot” created from frog cells. Xenobots can work together, heal themselves, even self-replicate, and could contribute to advancements in regenerative medicine.
As explained by Douglas Blackiston, a senior scientist at Tufts University, “At the most basic level, this is a platform or way to build with cells and tissues the way we can build robots out of mechanical components. You can almost think of it as Legos, where you can combine different Legos together, and with the same set of blocks you can make a bunch of different things.”9
Xenobot
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Robot Resistance
Before adopting robot technology, enterprise planners should consider the potential negative consequences.
Robots will require special security, increasing their operating costs.
Rather than robots attacking people (a common science fiction theme), the public’s antipathy toward robots (probably due to their job-stealing reputation) has prompted some people to actually attack robots.
In an environment where robots become increasingly prominent, enterprise owners will have to invest in robot protection, thereby increasing the cost of robot operations.
Robots may be subject to special taxes, decreasing their economic benefit.
It sounds bizarre, but as Eduardo Porter reported in the New York Times, “South Korea, the most robotized country in the world, instituted a robot tax of sorts in 2018 when it reduced the tax deduction on business investments in automation.”10
While still the outlier, South Korea many be joined by other nations. As attorney Sylvie Dumortier reminds us, “In December [2022], an MIT study found that a tax on robots set at between 1 percent and 3.7 percent of their value would help combat the effects of automation on income inequality in the United States. It is worth noting that this study did not consider the desirability of introducing a robot tax, but simply considered the question using a statistical approach.”11
Robots have a public relations problem, likely requiring a marketing response.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in May 2017 revealed that:
- “The public generally expresses more worry than enthusiasm about emerging automation technologies – especially when it comes to jobs.
- “Americans are reluctant to incorporate these [automation] technologies into their own lives.
- “The public supports policies that would limit the scope of automation technologies.
- “Some workers report that they already have been impacted by automation.
- “Americans worry widespread automation will lead to more inequality and leave people adrift in their lives.”12
In an environment where the public is generally pessimistic about robots and automation, enterprise owners will have to conduct a public relations campaign emphasizing the benefits of robot technology, again increasing the cost of robot operations.
Robot Futures
The future of robots, both in business and society, is likely linked to several key issues.
Robot Learning
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reports that “The trend of using artificial intelligence in robotics and automation keeps growing. Robot manufacturers are developing generative AI-driven interfaces which allow users to program robots more intuitively by using natural language instead of code. Workers will no longer need specialized programming skills to select and adjust the robot´s actions.
Another example is predictive AI analyzing robot performance data to identify the future state of equipment. Predictive maintenance can save manufacturers machine downtime costs. Machine learning algorithms can also analyze data from multiple robots performing the same process for optimization.”13
Robot Self-Sufficiency
As analyst Matt Simon opines, “Increasingly sophisticated machines may populate our world, but for robots to be really useful, they’ll have to become more self-sufficient. After all, it would be impossible to program a home robot with the instructions for gripping each and every object it ever might encounter. You want it to learn on its own, which is where advances in artificial intelligence come in.”14
Human-Robot Interaction
Except in cases where robots replace humans, humans and robots will have to work together. Can people truly cooperate with robots, or will human resentment sabotage the relationship? The early generations of collaboration between robots and their human partners will help answer this question.
Robot Decision-Making
One of Isaac Asimov’s famous “Three Laws of Robotics” states that “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” In the case of self-driving cars, this law is being tested. While few deny that self-driving cars will reduce overall accidents, there will be scenarios in which an accident cannot be avoided, which may, for example, force the car’s program to choose between a collision that injures one of the car’s passengers or injures a pedestrian. While, hopefully, such ethical dilemmas will be explored in advance – and the car given specific instructions on how to respond – the general public may not agree with the chosen solution. In addition, there may be unanticipated scenarios where the car is compelled to “make its own judgment call.” Whether for self-driving cars or other applications, will the public trust robot decision-making? If not, how will that influence the way in which robots are permitted to engage with society?
Industry Evolution
Just as the evolution of robot technology will affect the business of robotics, the robotics business will influence the technology. The Boston Consulting Group envisions three industry scenarios:
- “The Rise of Customized Solutions” – Similar to where we are today, companies will “design robot systems to serve specific applications.”
- “The Robot as a Standard Automation Device” – These robots would be “less complex,” but “easy to install, configure, and integrate.” Examples might include an “e-vehicle-charging robot” for the home, or an “autonomous picking robot” for a manufacturing plant.
- “Google World” – In this scenario, “breakthrough advances in machine intelligence, physical adeptness, and connectivity result in a spate of smart robot modules handling complex and dynamic situations. The biggest growth area is likely to be in professional services robots.”15
Robot Reality
Finally, from a macroeconomic perspective, no one really knows whether future generations of robots will take jobs or create jobs, and in what measure. Should people fear robots or welcome their arrival? The answer will likely determine the pace and direction of robot technology.
Web Links
References
1 Hans Peter Moravec. “Robot Technology.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2020.
2 Kevin Roose. “The Hidden Automation Agenda of the Davos Elite.” The New York Times. January 25, 2019.
3 Greg Nichols. “Robotics in Business: Everything Humans Need to Know.” ZD Net. July 18, 2018.
4 “Humanoid Robots: Sooner Than You Might Think.” Goldman Sachs. November 15, 2022.
5 “Top Five Robot Trends 2024.” International Federation of Robotics. February 15, 2024.
6 Erico Guizzo. “Types of Robots.” Robots | IEEE. May 23, 2023.
7 Zachary Fryer-Biggs. “Coming Soon to a Battlefield: Robots That Can Kill.” The Atlantic. September 3, 2019.
8 “Types of Robots.” IEEE. 2018.
9 Charlotte Hu. “Meet Xenobots, Tiny Machines Made Out of Living Parts.” Popular Science | Recurrent. April 17, 2023.
10 Eduardo Porter. “Don’t Fight the Robots. Tax Them.” The New York Times. February 23, 2019.
11 Sylvie Dumortier, Partner, Claeys & Engels. “Is It Time to Tax the Robots?” Ius Laboris. June 16, 2023.
12 Monica Anderson. “Six Key Findings on How Americans See the Rise of Automation.” Pew Research Center. October 4, 2017.
13 “Top Five Robot Trends 2024.” International Federation of Robotics. February 15, 2024.
14 Matt Simon. “The WIRED Guide to Robots.” Wired. May 17, 2018.
15 Ralph Lassig, Markus Lorenz, Emmanuel Sissimatos, Ina Wicker, and Tilman Buchner. “Robotics Outlook 2030: How Intelligence and Mobility Will Shape the Future.” Boston Consulting Group. June 28, 2021.