{"id":1334,"date":"2017-03-30T22:27:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T22:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshkunken.com\/blog\/?p=1334"},"modified":"2019-09-09T22:31:04","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T22:31:04","slug":"meeting-pepper-the-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshkunken.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/30\/meeting-pepper-the-robot\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting Pepper the Robot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had met Asimo from Honda while visiting Honda\u2019s Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan several years ago. While the primary purpose of my visit to Honda was to explore how Asimo behaved and worked, I developed a side interest in the \u201csegway-like\u201d vehicle being used throughout the building \u2014 the forerunner of the \u201choverboard.\u201d There are many potential applications for machines such as Asimo, and many of the presentations featuring it have it working alongside humans, rather than replacing them. Part of this is driven by the need for corporations to ameliorate any concerns employees might have about their future employment prospects. However, there are more practical reasons for doing so. I firmly believe that many solutions for automation, whether involving robotics or not, are best implemented in a semi-supervised or hybrid fashion, rather than as a complete drop-in replacement. Having developed high-throughput automated systems in the past, I have seen first-hand the issues that can take place when one leaves certain aspects of such systems unattended. The same holds true, possibly even moreso, for instances in which robotics begin to fulfill needs within human-intensive operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Recently, I had the pleasure to meet Pepper the Robot, an autonomous interactive machine built by Softbank, and I was amused by a number of its features and functionality. Pepper is currently used throughout a number of retail locations in Japan and other countries, for a number of purposes, including consumer transactions, customer engagement, among other purposes. Corporations leasing Pepper use it alongside with, not in replacement of, human staff members. Softbank\u2019s PR was very keen on presenting it as so, though from the limited number of use cases presented it was quite clear that their designers and developers thought very carefully and deliberately about what types of scenarios could be encountered and the range of needs systems such as Pepper could fulfill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is quite a bit of FUD being released in response to some of these new applications of technology within the realm of retail. Folks must realize that such technology can only serve to augment, and supplement, rather than replace. This has been evident within the automotive industry, and even within the operating room. Currently, surgeons operate on human beings with the help of so-called \u201crobots.\u201d Despite their misnomer, such robots actually serve to extend the range with which surgeons can operate within a human being, minimizing the need for invasiveness and providing additional degrees of freedom that would otherwise not be available. These are only two among many other industries in which robotics are assisting existing staff and even generating new levels of employment within the realm of robotics programming and maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having met Pepper in person, it was clear that there is significant room for growth within the field of robotics, and more importantly, the number of applications for such systems will likely expand in the future, with the aim of augmenting, rather than replacing, our current set of human capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had met Asimo from Honda while visiting Honda\u2019s Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan several years ago. While the primary purpose of my visit to Honda was to explore how Asimo behaved and worked, I developed a side interest in the \u201csegway-like\u201d vehicle being used throughout the building \u2014 the forerunnerRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57,59,58,60,48],"class_list":["entry","author-joshkunken","post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-future-of-work","tag-retail-industry","tag-robotics","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nMeeting Pepper the Robot - Insights Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshkunken.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/30\/meeting-pepper-the-robot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meeting Pepper the Robot - Insights Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had met Asimo from Honda while visiting Honda\u2019s Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan several years ago. 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