5 Things Service Robots Can Do

One job at a time, service robots are making the lives of consumers, customers, and employers easier. With their cutting-edge service robotics technology, artificial intelligence, and customer service capabilities, service robots can complete tasks that help plenty of human workers and customers in varying industries.

While service robots can accomplish many tasks, this article will be talking about the 5 general things these intelligent robots can do in common service industries.

What Can Service Robots Do?

Thanks to the advancement of robotics technology, service robots can assist human workers and human customers in accomplishing tasks more efficiently — may they be for public or personal use.

A public service robot is often seen working alongside human employees, employed by businesses to help with the assembly lines, take over time-consuming tasks, or handle dangerous jobs in dangerous situations. There are also public service robots that assist humans by way of customer service, healthcare settings, and hospitality.

A personal service robot is usually operated by a human to a certain extent and is used within private quarters. Robot vacuums, robot pets, domestic robots, and leisure social robots are examples of personal service robots as they are still able to provide service to their owners. These can be in the form of cleaning, lawn mowing, home maintenance, companionship, and running errands.

With the ability to operate semi- or fully autonomously, service robots can be useful in accomplishing repetitive, dangerous, and intellectual tasks with or without a human operator or intervention. Ultimately, service robots are used in strenuous, menial, or repetitive tasks where automated robotics technology can outperform the manual labor done by human workers.

What Services Are Provided By a Service Robot?

Depending on the industry they are employed in, service robots can provide a wide array of features and services.

Retail

Service robots in the retail industry help improve in-store operations. On the management side, a service robot can help humans with inventory management. Using machine learning and robotics technology, service robots can keep track of the stock and items running low, and can even place orders for restocking. They can detect problems with the shelf labels by scanning aisles using their cameras.

Service robots in retail can also help drive foot traffic in shopping malls as they can become a “tourist” attraction for customers. For this reason, many businesses would opt to go for service robots with human-like features as they serve as somewhat of a novelty for customer satisfaction and entertainment. Such features also help ease and encourage robot-human interactions.

Service robots also help in delivering tailored promotions and marketing in retail shops and stores. Through the data collected by service robots, store owners can get a deeper insight into their customers and how to get them to go back in the future based on their shopping behavior.

Healthcare

Service robots in the healthcare industry are used in many ways. Healthcare workers, medical professionals, patients, and visitors benefit from what service robots can do and the service that they provide in this particular industry.

Medical robots in the healthcare industry have the main goal of safety. Safety in terms of assisting surgeons in procedures, cleanliness in the environment, relieving physical demands from workers, and in providing care for patients.

In many ways, service robots in the healthcare industry also help boost productivity among workers. Common duties such as restocking shelves, setting up patient rooms, cleaning and sanitizing areas, and making deliveries can be done by service robots so human workers can focus on more pressing tasks. This helps minimize burnout and exposure to risky tasks while boosting productivity among employees. An example of this occurrence was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospitality

Service robots do plenty in the hospitality industry. Namely, hotels, restaurants, and the food service industry.

In the hotel industry, service robots can enhance and personalize the customer experience. Starting from the check-in process, service robots can provide a unique experience by greeting guests as soon as they arrive and improving efficiency by allowing them to check in without the need to talk to a concierge. Service robots can also provide impeccable room service right from bringing the guests’ luggage to the room or delivering food.

In the restaurant industry and service industries, service robots help humans from front-of-house to the backend. A service robot can greet diners and help them get seated. Service robots can also act as waiters and get orders from diners, finalize bills, and charge cards. On the other hand, self-driving service robots can make deliveries, may it be inside a restaurant or to the homes of hungry humans.

For the backend, service robots can also help in preventing food waste by studying the order and consumption behavior of customers. These robots can factually state what orders are in high demand so they can order a high volume of these ingredients when doing inventory management and order fewer ingredients for orders that are not in demand. This entails savings for businesses as they can manage expenses more wisely and focus on the production of high-driving items.

Domestic

Domestic service robots help in household productivity. Service robots can perform household chores and activities such as dishwashing, sweeping, weed control, vacuuming, lawn mowing, and other domestic applications. On-the-go people who live independently can benefit greatly from domestic service robots as maintaining a clean environment is one thing that they can take off of their busy lists.

There are also domestic robots that aim to provide companionship and entertainment for their owners. Socially isolated humans greatly benefit from these types of service robots.

Logistics

Plenty of logistics companies and businesses employ service robots to boost productivity amongst workers, help with inventory management, and perform tasks that otherwise are too repetitive, strenuous, or even dangerous for humans to do.

From sorting packages, packing goods, and delivering items, service robots help plenty with the logistics industry. An example of a service robot developed for these specific tasks is ‘Digit’ by Agility Robotics.

What Are the Benefits of Service Robots?

Due to plenty of external factors such as labor shortages, burnout, supply chain interruptions, and more, service robots are proving to be great employees to have in many businesses. As the International Organization for Standardization defines a ‘service robot’ as a robot “that performs useful tasks for humans”, these intelligent bots have plenty of benefits to offer.

Labor Savings

While service robots are not created to take over the jobs or “manually override” humans, they do provide managers and businesses a somewhat permanent solution to the problem of staff shortages. With the ability to show up to work 24/7 from opening to closing, service robots can provide savings for companies.

Efficiency

Service robots result in the efficiency of things when it comes to accomplishing tasks. These robots can easily be taught and trained in new things depending on the system and program they need to follow. They can also be tasked with plenty of ‘menial’ jobs so human employees can focus on more pressing tasks that require their utmost focus and intellect.

Analytics and Data Collection

Service robots can quickly gather customer data, activity, and sentiments that can be used for the improvement of the business. Managers can find out what customers like and dislike so they can alter their products, services, and systems accordingly to help secure customer loyalty and increase sales.

Final Note

As technology continues to advance, we can only expect that these intelligent service robots can serve and assist us in many more ways in the future. With such a flexible yet forward-thinking robot design, the versatility and functionality of a service robot can go a long way not just in different industries but in many parts of the world.

Frequently Asked Questions

What cool things can robots do?

While “cool” can be subjective, plenty can agree that robots can perform several cool things. From being able to change tires, and concoct drinks, to going on space missions, robots can help humans with plenty of tasks and jobs.

Do all service robots have robotic arms?

Generally, most service robots have robotic arms that will help them perform and accomplish certain tasks. However, robot designs can differ depending on what they are intended for and their main function.

What is the difference between service robots and industrial robots?

In the simplest explanation possible, service robots are designed to assist humans to accomplish daily tasks while industrial robots are used more in the manufacturing industry to carry out more dangerous tasks.