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.