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As we say goodbye to the transformative year that was 2023 within the field of robotics, we find ourselves on the precipice of even more exciting advancements and innovations leading us to form certain expectations regarding robotics trends predictions. Here, we share five robotics trends predictions that we expect to dominate in 2024.
The impact of Generative AI on robotics, and practically almost everywhere in the digital landscape, has become one of the defining trends and innovations in 2023. With that, we expect nothing less than Generative AI to be even more present in 2024, especially in becoming the language model for robotic systems to make them smarter and more social.
“Language models aren’t just for IoT anymore. Given the ease with which interfaces like ChatGPT can interpret prompts into commands, there will be a new class of tools emerging that seeks to combine the best of natural language processing and perception hardware,” said Brandon Minor, co-founder and CEO of Tangram Vision.
As of writing, researchers and developers are already using GenAI to make robots smarter and learn more tasks. We have AI-powered robots from Amazon to help with warehouse tasks, RT-2 from Google, and AI Robots that are even used to promote films. Boston Dynamics went even as far as integrating ChatGPT into the system of Spot, their quadruped robot, to act as a tour guide.
That being said, GenAI integration in robotic systems will surely make its way into more applications both commercially and for business.
When robots were first integrated into the work system, they were often limited to just working in the aisles of warehouses and back operations. However, with Generative AI and more innovations, robots are now more poised (and ready) to interact with humans in a manner that feels somewhat natural.
According to the co-founder and COO of Tangram Vision, Adam Rodnitzky, there will be an acceleration of robots in public settings: sidewalk delivery, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, parking lots, and more. These public-facing interactions can be in front of customers and guests, or even alongside colleagues.
He also adds by saying, “Part of this comes down to the startups serving these markets reaching a point of maturity where they can deliver reliable fleets into these venues… Part of it also comes down to the fact that the startups serving these markets must now scale those fleets — or else”.
Just a short while back, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) were met with skepticism by various industries, leading them to be branded as “novelties” rather than workforce assets. Fast forward to today, AMRs are now a $20.3 billion industry according to Markets & Markets. With projections even valuing up to $40.6 billion by 2028, we have included robots becoming more mobile through AMR in our prediction for robotics trends.
“AMRs have been on the market for around 10 years… the first few years saw robot enthusiasts and others testing single robots, but now companies from myriad industries deploy large fleets of robots into core production.”, says Ramus Smet Jenson, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy at Mobile Industrial Robots.
He continues by saying, “AMRs are widely used to move materials within production and in warehouses… We expect these applications to continue to be the most common areas in 2024, but as AMRs become mainstream, we’ll see even more use cases. Expect to see newer solutions such as mobile cobots and AMR pallet/forklifts as well as we’re definitely seeing the demand for those grow.”
With that said, we can expect AMRs to make their way into more unstructured environments and workplaces such as airports, personally delivering goods, and even mowing lawns.
Similar to the previous year, humanoid robots will continue to take center stage in 2024. We see this in how companies like Tesla continue to innovate and work on their humanoid robot models because let’s face it, they’re not going anywhere.
However, as the technology and requirements of humanoid robots are more advanced, we expect that most humanoid robots currently in production will still not be able to make a global and commercial-scale release. With the exception of Agility Robotics’ Digit and GXO Logistics, we might have to hold off first on getting our hands on humanoids and seeing them join the workforce in large numbers.
When Linux revealed plans to incorporate the Rust programming language into the upcoming Linux 6.1 kernel model, this opened new avenues for robotic developers to use an alternative programming protocol.
The incorporation of Rust as a programming language allowed robotics developers to rely less on traditional programs such as C, and make use of a more secure and functional one. “Because of Rust’s inherent memory safety and management, it is very well suited for the world of robotics. While many roboticists have casually dabbled with Rust, there is a growing contingent that is pushing ever more aggressively for broader adoption within the robotics community,”, says Tangram Vision’s Rodnitzky.
From the game-changing potential of generative AI to the expanding applications of AMRs and the incorporation of Rust, we are in the midst of an exciting era of innovation and transformation for the field of robotics in 2024. Each trend gives us a glimpse of what’s to come, and we have to say that the anticipation is truly exciting!
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