Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are similar but different technologies. While robots automate physical processes, AI can automate digital and more dynamic processes. However, the two technologies are starting to come together, and AI robots could dramatically impact several industries.
How artificial intelligence is changing robotics?
AI robots bring the flexibility, intelligence, and learning capabilities of AI to physical machines. As a result, robots can achieve new levels of autonomy, being able to adapt to new conditions without human input. Likewise, artificially intelligent robots open the door to more general automation, enabling a single robot to complete a wide range of tasks without reprogramming.
With traditional robots, companies often sacrifice flexibility for productivity, and sometimes automation yields no net improvement. The combination of artificial intelligence and robotics offers a solution to this obstacle. Businesses can experience all the efficiency gains of robotics, while AI ensures they can learn new processes and adapt to new information.
AI can also make standard robotic processes more reliable. Machine vision-a subset of artificial intelligence-can provide vision to robots, helping them navigate or organize tasks more accurately. While these shifts may not be as drastic as robots that can adapt like human employees, they still yield important benefits.
Industries Likely to Benefit the Most from AI Robots
Many industries will benefit from the advent of AI-powered robots, but some benefit more than others. Here are six industries most likely to reap the most significant benefits from AI robots.
1. Warehousing and logistics
Manufacturing has been the main use case for traditional robots for decades, but it's not necessarily the biggest application for AI robots. Industrial sectors with less predictable workflows, such as warehousing and logistics, could benefit more.
Warehouse workflows such as picking, sorting, and material handling are repetitive, laborious, and time-consuming, making them unsuitable for manual work. However, as demand and inventory levels and locations change regularly, traditional automation is not always a viable solution. Adaptable artificial intelligence robots can overcome this obstacle.
Early AI robotics projects are helping some warehouses save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by reducing labor and floor space costs. This technology will become even more valuable as supply chain demands increase and warehouse labor becomes less available.
2. Healthcare
The medical field is another industry where robotic implementation has previously been limited or impractical. Robots in healthcare mostly take the form of telesurgery machines, which, while helpful, save suboptimal productivity because they rely on human input.
AI robots could allow hospitals to use fully autonomous machines. These robots are unlikely to replace human surgeons in handling operations, but they can examine patients and make early diagnoses. Automating these tasks will help medical professionals spend more time with patients and reduce hospital wait times.
AI might also spot some conditions years before doctors notice them, because it can pick up signals that are too small for humans to notice. Therefore, connecting AI and robotics in healthcare may lead to earlier responses, improving patient outcomes.
3. Waste management
The recycling industry also requires a high level of accuracy, which is difficult for humans to achieve. Sorting recyclables from those destined for landfill can be challenging, especially when multiple layers of recyclability are considered. It's also not the kind of job people typically enjoy, making it a prime candidate for automation.
To be viable in this field, robots must identify recyclable waste and sort it accordingly with a high degree of accuracy in a short time. Machine vision systems enable these improvements.
AI object recognition enables robotic sorting equipment to see and move recyclables in the waste stream faster and more accurately than humans. These optimized waste management processes will become increasingly important as environmental initiatives intensify.
4. Architecture
Waste management requires the speed of automation, but traditional robots lack object recognition capabilities and improvements are limited. Likewise, buildings could benefit from the safety potential of automation, but traditional robots are not flexible enough to be practical.
The construction industry has the highest number of workplace deaths of any industry, so improving safety is critical. However, the workplace can be unpredictable and varies from project to project. AI bots can succeed where traditional alternatives have failed, using past knowledge and new data to adapt to these different scenarios.
Once robots are more adaptable, construction crews can use them to handle the most dangerous tasks, separating humans from the greatest dangers. This automation will also help overcome ongoing labor shortages as demand increases.
5. Restaurant
Likewise, the restaurant industry could greatly benefit from automation, but has remained manual for years. This is starting to change as artificial intelligence makes robots more flexible and easier to work alongside humans.
Restaurants are facing severe staff shortages, so robots are an essential part of meeting demand. However, these machines must be able to accommodate menu changes and ingredient inconsistencies, and work safely alongside human workers in tight spaces. The flexibility of artificial intelligence and capabilities like machine vision allow them to do just that.
Bots may not be able to replace the human connection customers feel when talking to servers, hosts and other employees, but they are great for working behind the scenes. Robots can clean and even cook while human workers oversee duties or interact with customers so restaurants can reach their full production potential.
6. Security and Defense
Security teams often face staffing issues, as it is difficult for small teams to effectively cover wide areas. Artificially intelligent robots can fill in the gaps where human security forces are stretched thin, improving public safety.
Computer vision allows these robots to navigate safely, while machine learning helps them distinguish between actual emergencies and false positives. Natural language processing (NLP) can even allow them to communicate with humans to better understand situations.
When these bots detect a problem, they can alert human responders of the problem and its exact location, informing a faster response. They can also handle some situations completely on their own, such as guiding people or providing some basic first aid equipment.
AI robots will change many industries
These six industries are just a sampling of the changes AI bots will experience, but they will see more disruption than most others. As AI further advances robotics, new possibilities and use cases will emerge. Industries that harness this potential will change dramatically.
