Dreaming of a new earth

What was considered inconceiveable even a decade ago, is fast making advances in the world of artificial intelligence (AI). The reality of our lives being deeply woven with robots, virtual aides and bots is not too far away. The proliferation of robotics in our lives is going to be at an even faster rate than ever before, but the one thing that this new world will be able to boast of is extreme efficiency, accuracy and time saving. In this article we discuss some of the key applications of daily life that will be taken over by robots soon.

Industrial robots

Even three years ago, the Daimler factory in Stuttgart, responsible for making the highest class Mercedes Benz cars, employed only robots to manufacture the high-end vehicle.The humans were responsible only for the end quality check. When a machine like a car can be completely built by automated systems, it’s only a matter of time that other manufacturing units will turn to robots. What is going to change in 2019 is that instead of robots standing in fixed positions and doing fixed tasks, they will be now moving around and working in flexible tasks, offering an option of quick deployment in a variety of roles. This will be a real game changer taking robots beyond just a few industries like automobiles.

Robots in hospitals

Hospitals are increasingly moving on to the robotics bandwagon. There are robots that can now help surgeons do very precise surgeries, backed by 3D imaging and extremely dexterous rotation into the patient’s body. This allows the doctors to have very small cuts making surgeries less invasive. What one can expect in the next few years is that some of the robots will perform surgeries in remote locations during times of disaster or inaccessibility.

Shopping assistants

There are times during shopping where there can be deep dissonance when the sales person doesn’t really understand your preferences — whether you like low sodium organic food or prefer fabric handbags or understand your particular need for a sofa. In 2019, we expect to see a range of robotic shopping assistants that would be going around the store, guiding you with product purchase, helping you with promotions and providing detailed comparisons without having you break your regular shopping routine.

Warehouse robots

The next time you order something from Amazon or any major e-commerce website, there is a good chance that there would have been a robot that would have been part of getting the product to your hands. There are now entire warehouses that are getting automated where the robots get the orders placed online, move to particular shelves, get a human to remove a product and place it in on the robot, which it delivers to the packaging area. As e-commerce goes bigger so will the population of warehouse robots that will not need assistance from a human.

Robots as receptionists

If you walk into a high-tech office in 2019, there is a chance that you might encounter a robot doing the reception area management, working happily along with a human. The robot will try to recognise you and if you are new, it could ask for your details over voice and get you connected to your host in seconds. Rather than waiting for many minutes at the lobby, the robot can guide you to your meeting room in a short time.

Robotic security

Employing human beings can be quite costly in many places, which means that security can be insufficient in these locations. The margin of error in human beings guarding a place is much more than an automated patrolling assistant. In this case, there will be no risk of getting tired, sleeping or corrupt.

In the future, robots will perform patrolling and follow standard operating procedures without lapse. Robots will also be do machine learning powered sensor data collection to be on top of multiple security threats. In 2019, we can expect to see multiple companies in India testing out security robots to augment humans in high security installations.

We are facing an increasing convergence of rapid advancements in computer vision, natural language processing and indoor positioning systems. Combined with advancements in 3D printing and other tools that allow rapid prototyping, we are building new innovations at a remarkable clip.