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Meanwhile, Santa Clara-based Savioke is creating autonomous service robots that hotels can use to quickly deliver items — such as toothbrushes, chargers, snacks and bottled water — straight from the lobby to guests that request them. Savioke CEO Steve Cousins said that the service robots reduce the wait time for deliveries and, better yet, guests enjoy interacting with them. Cousins is also looking to the future.
“I think robots helping people is an enormous opportunity,” said Cousins.
Todd Hylton, the Executive Vice President of Brain Corporation pointed out that there are still various technical and business hurdles to overcome before “everyday robots” can become part of our everyday lives. Hylton explained that it is relatively easy to give computers adult-level performance and intelligence for performing various tasks, but it’s very difficult to give them the skills of a one-year-old when it comes to understanding the environment. Machine learning, software, hardware and operating systems, among others, will all need to improve.
These are some of the issues that researchers associated with the Contextual Robotics Institute will be focused on.
Speaking about robotics from an entrepreneurial perspective was entrepreneur Paolo Pirjanian, the former CTO of iRobot. Pirjanian led the development of technologies such as NorthStar, the world’s lowest cost navigation system, and Mint, an intelligent square-shaped floor-cleaning robot that can map the room, plan out the areas for cleaning and detect any spots not cleaned during the first pass. He offered the following advice to startup companies in robotics: “Don’t let third parties control your destiny. You’ve got to control your own destiny,” stressing that no one will be as dedicated to your product as you will ever be.
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