People have always speculated about robots taking over the low-wage menial tasks industry that is usually performed by humans. LG has unveiled a new line of Robots that seems to bring that fantasy closer to reality. Three new concept robots have been introduced to LG’s CLOi robot brand, that are being presented as “developed for…
People have always speculated about robots taking over the low-wage menial tasks industry that is usually performed by humans. LG has unveiled a new line of Robots that seems to bring that fantasy closer to reality. Three new concept robots have been introduced to LG’s CLOi robot brand, that are being presented as “ developed for commercial use at hotels, airports and supermarkets”. These robots are designed to ‘serve’ drinks, ‘port’ luggage and help people while they ‘shop’.
At this year’s CES, LG has unveiled its newly expanded family of the CLOi line-up named the Serving Robot, Porting Robot, and Shopping Cart Robot. These robots look very similar to their siblings, the Airport Guide Robot and Airport Cleaning Robot, which were unveiled at CES 2017. The new robots are aptly named depending on the activities they are designed to perform.
The Serving Robot is specifically designed to deliver food and drinks to customers at places like hotels, airport lounges or even restaurants. It has a built-in sliding tray for this purpose and also seems to have a deeper compartment at the top for larger objects. The ServingRobot is smart in the aspect that once it has finished its delivery service, it will go back to the kitchen independently.
The Porter Robot is designed with the intention of automating the luggage carrying and delivery service one finds at a hotel. It is meant to “minimise the inconvenience that may result from slow service and long wait times during a hotel stay”. It even comes equipped with the ability to assist guests with checkout and carrying luggage to their cars quickly.
Finally, we have the Shopping Cart Robot that would be launched at premium supermarkets. This robot has the ability to scan product barcodes to display prices to customers. It would also show customers their shopping list and can guide them to desired products which the customer enters in an accompanying smartphone app.
These new robots will be deployed sometime this year. The initial release could be a testing phase similar to how the Airport Guide Robot and Airport Cleaning Robot were released in a trial run at Incheon International Airport in South Korea last year. LG’s CLOi robot line will be developed alongside the ThinQ range of smart products, which they also unveiled at CES 2018.
