Business Idea: Applying AI to Robotics

Introduction

Hello everyone, this is Kanta K. and here, I introduce my business idea.

In recent years, there has been much discussion especially in Japan surrounding the issue of the aging of the population and the lack of people and services to take care of elderly people. I would like to propose a business idea which advances reliable artificial intelligence technologies and utilises this for supporting more independent and safe lives, especially for elderly people.

Concept

The concept for the business is to sell artificial intelligence robots capable of performing various tasks including some housework and safety monitoring. These robots will be connected to a server that hosts the data and program for the artificial intelligence. People will be able to use it to help them at home by talking to it, potentially giving instructions.

Several months ago, I attended a conference and listened to a presentation applying artificial intelligence to robotics technologies. This involved the robot learning to complete tasks such as identifying items in a refrigerator or folding towels. This inspired me to come up with this business idea.

Example of AI robot folding a towel for laundry

(Image source: https://www.iotworldtoday.com/robotics/eve-humanoid-robot-folds-laundry)

Benefits

• Helpful for elderly people: This business will free up time for people to pursue other things, and elderly people may also be able to work, resulting in increased productivity. It also ensures their safety in the home

• Less burden for carers: The robot will be able to look out for most elderly people, ensuring their safety and allowing them to live more independently. This means carers can focus more on people who may require more attention.

Contents

In particular, the robot would be able to perform the following functions

• ensuring safety with fire to aid cooking to make sure that the fire is turned off

• ensure safety with stairs in the house to make sure there are no accidents with falling

• a monitoring system in case something goes wrong, which alerts family members or anybody necessary for the incident

• performs various housework including aiding with cooking, cleaning and washing or folding clothes

These applications of AI technology would require one that has a high reliability. This also ties into my personal interests in designing more reliable decision making AI and subjects such as formal methods. Moreover, another important aspect of this business is the accessibility and availability of the robot products. This means that the cost will need to be reduced as much as possible. One possible way to do this is to have the training data and the processing of the robot done on an external server elsewhere that each robot device connects to and is shared by all of these robots.

Summary

This application of AI technology to robotics is a relatively new area of research that has great potential in the future to help with societal issues such as aging population. It can have benefits that allow elderly people to live more independent lives and work if they wish to, while the workload of carers are reduced by some of the work being done by these robots.

Rooster Live Café in Ogikubo

Hello, I am Kanta K. and I would like to share about an interesting café that I used to go to when I was younger. It's located in Ogikubo in Tokyo, and it's called "Rooster". But this is not just an ordinary café, because it is actually a live café with live music. What's more, the live music is actually performed not only by professional musicians doing concerts, but also by the very customers at the café themselves ! In fact, I was one of those amateur musicians who would go to Rooster, enjoy the food there and also play guitar on stage.

Stage at Rooster

(Source: https://www.ogikubo-rooster.com/)

The way it works is that on select days, the stage would be available for people who want to play improvised blues jam sessions. If you were one of them, you would need to register for it and then attend like any other customer. Then, the organiser would call out your name when you are ready and you can join the musicians on stage and play with them. By doing this, we had a different combination of musicians each time who would come together for the first time and start jamming together.

In blues, we have specific chord progressions and musical scales that are used very frequently, so with all of us using these same chords and scales, we were able to start playing on the spot without any rehearsal. It was a great way to experience the magic and joy of music, almost like a language, as if we were communicating in real time through the melodies we each come up with on the spot.

The food there was great as well ! I particularly liked the spicy fried chicken there, which I would often eat in between going on the stage to perform.

If you play music and you're looking for others to play with in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, or even if you don't play music and you want to simply enjoy the joy and thrill of live improvised music as you eat delicious snacks, then this place is for you !

Thank you for reading !

Link to the website of Rooster: https://www.ogikubo-rooster.com/

Introducing Myself From Tokyo

Hello, my name is Kanta K., and I am a new intern at Tenatch, with the position of software developer. I come from Japan and I studied bachelor aerospace engineering at a university in the Netherlands. Prior to this, I obtained my international baccalaureate diploma from an international school in Japan, and I have also lived in the UK for 4 years total on two occasions. This is my first time working as an intern at a start-up, and I am very grateful for this valuable opportunity !

Photo I took in Delft, the Netherlands, where I studied at university

Currently, I have a keen interest in computer science, especially with areas in logic such as Knowledge Representation and Reasoning and using these to develop artificial intelligence technologies. I have experience programming with Python at university, and I have recently taken courses in Java and C to learn these programming languages as well. I aim to learn how to work in a collaborative software development environment to develop larger scale projects in a team than those I have made on my own. I also find the real world impact of these projects to be appealing, such as the Tsuin.ai project which I would like to contribute to.

In the future, I dream of collaborating with an international team on cutting edge innovative technology for decision making or reasoning tools that can make a positive impact in fields such as AI and robotics.

Previously, I worked at an after-school English program at a kindergarten as an assistant. It was a valuable and rewarding experience, where I was able to help elementary school children learn to communicate in English and do their homework.

In terms of hobbies, I enjoy making and listening to music. I have played in many music bands, including with other students in my high school, or at a live improvised jam session at a bar in Japan. In my free time, I often like exploring music from all around the world as well, especially traditional music from different cultures. This also ties in well with another hobby I have, which is learning languages, since I like doing this through listening to music in the different languages I learn. In addition to English and Japanese, I have learned French in school and on my own for almost a decade, and have been learning Dutch since studying in the Netherlands.

Playing guitar at a performance in a band I assembled at school

I am looking forward to working with you all ! Thank you for reading this introduction !