Alibaba is one of the largest e-commerce Chinese companies. Few days ago, this giant announced its’ entrance to the sector of commercial robotics. Alibaba introduced Space Egg – a robot designed to work in hotels, which distributes ordered food and items [2]. Already next month, company plans to allocate first robot in one of Chinese hotels. The Space Egg is almost one meter high and uses an advanced navigation system, enhanced by cameras and lasers to compute its current location and allow for accurate motion. However, the machine moves slightly slower in than a human – it reaches a speed of one meter per second [1]. Most probably the future versions of the product will enhance its motion capabilities.
AliGenie, another development of Alibaba, is a device working alike to Alexa. It is an AI assistant which is installed in hotel rooms. Space Egg’s system is integrated with Genie, allowing for instant interconnection of both devices [3]. Thus, guests can make orders directly from their hotel rooms using a voice command. Thanks to that, Alibaba’s AI Lab claims that Space Egg will become an assistant of the most demanding clients who appreciate fast and convenient ways to fulfil their wants [1].
Similar machines are already introduced in various industries. In recent years, Savioke has built a robotic butler, called Botlr, which serves hotels’ clients. Furthermore, Panasonic created HOSPI- a machine designer to ferry medical supplies around hospitals and clinics. Recently popular CLOi, made by LG, serve cocktails in bars and carry luggage at the airports . Thus, it may seem that Alibaba’s new launch is not an innovative device. In my opinion it is partly true[1]. However, it ability to cooperate with Genie of this robo-porter is a novel functionality compared to competitors.
Even though robots designed to carry around items existed already, I think that, Space Egg raised the bar to the next level, showing that the future belongs to interconnected and interactive devices. As presented, one of e-commerce leaders now enters different industries with novel propositions. Alibaba just made a new launch and is already planning to introduce a Space Egg’s “ hospital brother” to ferry medical supplies – Space Shuttle [2]. It will also be used to transport items in supermarkets [3]. What is more, this firm aims to target other markets, for example create more customized robots for restaurants and offices.
Few questions arise: Which industry is going to be target next? And, will those technologies could possibly increase unemployment since tasks currently performed by humans are taken over by rotos?
This seems to be very interesting to get to know, but who will suffer from when curiosity become a reality? Or maybe there is no need to worry because those technologies will only complement us and make our life easier.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/25/17900160/alibaba-ai-robot-space-egg-hotel-porter
[3] https://technode.com/2018/09/20/alibaba-service-robots/
[4] https://youtu.be/tAyN8MVA9IE
[5] picture – https://qtxasset.com/styles/breakpoint_sm_default_480px_w/s3/hotelmanagement/1537884994/AI-Labs-Robot.png?UqrIokjkoSVHOrJJyaTRmFaDi7_bWhl.&itok=8-Hpmkus
Thank you very much for sharing these information. It is indeed interesting how Alibaba is at the forefront of innovation and technology and finds ever increasing possibilities to combine technologies and create new opportunities.
These robotic vehicle based on artificial intelligence functions is a combination of several trends observable in recent tech breakthroughs. It incorporates the functions of self driving cars (e.g. autonomous rout navigation and recognition of the surrounding), notification application when reaching certain geographic targets, as well as persona recognition when encountering the desired target person.
I believe this application has a bride future and might not only be applicable in the original setting as Alibaba defined it, but might be able to also function in areas outside the initial scope. One of the examples it reminds me of is the food delivery robot by starship (https://www.businessinsider.com/people-are-kicking-starship-technologies-food-delivery-robots-2018-6?international=true&r=US&IR=T).
I am excited to see what the future holds for us.
Thank you for this insight into Alibaba’s latest developments!
While it is fascinating to see how intelligent this product is, I still have my doubts regarding its real-life implementation.
As shown in the clip, the Space Egg is dependent on elevators to reach different floors. This means that the elevator’s control systems need to be adapted, which can be costly and adds a new kind of risk – in case the radio frequency transceiver is not working properly, the Egg is stuck. Besides, cruising on the same floor is already quite challenging. Sudden stops and turns to evade obstacles or even bumps in the hallway carpet can ruin the arrangement of meal and make soups, sauces, and beverages spill. Since good food presentation is obligatory for hotel restaurants to induce higher customer satisfaction, the Space Egg probably does not offer the best way of delivery. Another issue which seems to be overlooked is that the robot makes the guests bow down to reach for their meal, which might be inconvenient for the elderly.
From my point of view, the Space Egg is a very innovative product and has indeed implementation potentials in very modern hotels that are designed for the younger generations. But for any other kind of hotel, human employees can still provide a far more flexible and customer-centric service when it comes to in-house food deliveries.