Completely out of left-field (to me) a company called Mantaro introduces the MantaroBot, a Skype-based telepresence robot for $3,500 – available now!
I don’t know who this company is or what exactly the capabilities of this robot are but they’re definitly at the right price point. Given that their order form says 60 days for delivery, it remains to be seen how serious of a business this is for the company.
Via Engadget
As you know, we have been testing our TiLR robotic telepresence platform since Summer 2008 with various customers large and small. Our first test site, the Google Lunar challenge team over at the XPRIZE Foundation was a huge success. Since then we have had the opportunity to test TiLR in many more settings and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback and data-points on how robotic telepresence increases productivity and team cohesiveness while simultaneously decreasing travel and downtime.
Some of the data was predictable. For example, we had a good idea on how much productivity increase we can expect in certain situations. At the same time we were also surprised by some of the data we’ve been receiving from customers… and I want to share a few of those surprises with you today.
Communication Initiation
When we started back in 2003, we believed the value of robotic telepresence was in the ability to drive (the robot) to someone’s desk and initiating a conversation. This would eliminate the need for travel to that location by using the robot as your avatar in the remote office, particularly useful to people who work remotely and/or have a need to be in multiple offices at the same time. It turns out however, that 67% of all communications on the robot initiate on the robot side!
This was particularly surprising because we had always assumed that you can pick up a phone, use IM, or send off an email to the remote person. Yet it turns out that the mere presence of the remote person via the robotic avatar has profound psychological effects on how people initiate communications within teams. To put it differently, we are far more likely to ask questions or share information with someone who is physically present, and conversely we tend to delay and/or never initiate a conversation with a remote team member, even though that person’s input may be needed or even critical to accomplishing a common goal.
Digging deeper into this, we found that team members viewed formal meetings as the place to ask questions or share information with remote team members at a ratio of 2-to-1, even though no such formal procedures to this effect were in place. By “formal meeting” we mean either an actual meeting where team members get together. This can mean either a physical meeting, a virtual meeting using video and/or teleconferencing, or even a common wiki page that is updated at pre-determined time intervals.
In practical terms, this finding has some profound effects on team performance:
First, it suggests that existing tools such as IM, Email, Telephones are not being utilized as much as they could be. A team member can easily shoot off an email to inform a remote team member about a certain decision that was made at the office… but the inefficiencies with random-interval-communication in such manners is deemed not worth the effort.
Second, there is strong evidence that physical representations of remote team members can increase both the number of conversations as well as the quality of conversations by orders of magnitude. Of course we see this everyday at the office where people talk freely, exchange information, and ask questions. It is less evident in cases where there are remote team members because generally companies don’t have informal conversation procedures between multi-geographic team members. Yet, we see a lot of anecdotal experimentation being done in this area, such as requiring all workers to be present in a virtual meeting room at all times while working (e.g. Second Life) or having videoconferencing screens setup where they stream between offices throughout the day.
Third, in analyzing our survey results, we found that the very action(s) required to initiate a conversation, no matter how trivial (such as composing a new email and/or dialing a phone number) are by far the number one cited reason for prohibiting these ad-hoc communications in the first place. As such, removing as much of this barrier would automatically translate to a higher occurrence of informal communications with remote team members. In the case of robotic telepresence, it is very often the case when the robot (e.g. the remote team member) is passing by someone’s cubicle, and that person is then reminded to ask the remote team member a question or to inform him of something.
There were several other surprising pieces of feedback which I will cover in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’d like to invite anyone who may be a remote team member and/or works in a multi-geographic team to chime in on these findings.
Best,
/F
Before robots attack humans, they will spend a great deal of time helping humanity accomplish varoius tasks.
Robots will come in all shapes and sizes – and will solve all kinds of problems.
Want your apartment vacuumed? Get a Roomba.
Need a sniper at high altitude in a combat zone? Send a SniperBot.
Need to be in two places at once? Get a TiLR!!!
Let me back up a bit…
At RoboDynamics we set out to develop a number of the underlying technologies that enable a wide range of robotic applications. We then use these technologies to deliver an end-to-end solution than can solve a large problem for the end user. Though TiLR can be used for a wide variety of applications, we picked robotic telepresence as the first showcase of TiLR’s capabilities.
We believe robotic telepresence will have a significant impact on the way we live and conduct business. The significance of this technology is in its ability to instantly transport expertise without physically transporting the expert. From healthcare to enterprise management, the ability to have instant access to a subject-matter expert can mean a life-or-death difference.
A great example of this is our colleagues at InToch Health Systems. Their RP-7 robot has saved countless lives by enabling medical specialists (doctors) to be at a patient’s bedside within minutes – in hospitals where no such specialists exist. The net effect is better care for the patient, time savings for the doctor, and cost-savings and efficiency for the hospital.
Though we do not intend to enter the healthcare market, the example above clearly demonstrates the significance of this technology. Our interest is in enterprise and industrial markets, where we enable stakeholders to communicate more effectively within teams or spaces that matter to them. For example, we enable remote workers to better communicate with the rest of the team at the main office – or an engineer to inspect an assembly line in China – from the convenience of their computer. The key concept here isconvenience!
One of main technologies we’ve been working on is bridging the gap between the ubiquity of the web and robots. As a matter of convenience, we believe that it is critical to deliver robotic applications through web-based interfaces. This is a very difficult challenge and remains a work-in-progress. However, with the introduction of Rocketship, our web-based interface to TiLR, we have taken a huge step in bridging this gap. Given this technology, we can now transport experties within seconds of opening a browser. Though still in Beta, I want to invite everyone to give Rocketship a try – and provide feedback as we continue iterating this technology.
And so… without further ado, below is a 60 second video of Rocketship. Please enjoy.
Since 1970 on April 22nd we celebrate Earth Day in the United States. Founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day marks the beginning of the Environmental Movement – which in recent years has seeped into the larger consciousness of the American public. Protecting the enviroment is the single greatest challenge facing humankind today. Global Warming, caused by massive release of CO2 gasses into the atmosphere, combined with unabated deforestation, have social implications that is yet to reach our full consciousness… as declining water supplies, famine, and wars are certain to follow.
In order to solve this challenge we must have both a short term as well as a longer term approach. It is a matter of great concern that the longer term approach requires the type of global leadership that our politicians are still lacking. The good news however, is that there exists a vast amount of information and resources as to how we can work together in grassroots fashion to decrease our collective carbon footprint in the short term. A good place to start learning (and acting) is the CarbonFootprint.com website.
My goal with this post is to simply shed light on how robotic telepresence will play a small but significant role in reducing CO2 emissions both in the short and long term.
Robotic telepresence is about transporting expertise without physical transport of the expert.
Even in this nascent era of robotics there are a number of great robotic technologies in the field – that as an added side-benefit – are helping to reduce our carbon footprint by enabling people to be in two places at once. Whether its getting a medical doctor to the front-lines of battle in Iraq, conducting a business meeting between counterparts in a global corporation, or a maintenance manager inspecting an assembly line on the factory floor 15 blocks away, our tradional transport systems require burning carbon-based fuels (oil) to get the expert from point A to point B. Robotic telepresence provides a viable alternative that enables getting the benefit of the expertise without requiring the expert to be transported to that location. I would be the first to admit that there’s nothing like being there in person. The question is whether this next-best alternative telepresence (in all its forms) is viable. And the answer is a resounding yes.
Saving lives, saving time, and decreasing carbon-emissions; these are some examples that are already in place:
RP-7 (InTouch Health Systems)
The RP-7 already has over 400 installed bases and extends the reach of medical doctors by providing instant access to the patient. Within seconds a doctor can be summoned to a patient’s bedside, be they in a small town hospital that lacks specialists or the front-lines of battle in Iraq where it would be prohibitive to have a doctor present. This robot enables the doctor to see the patient, and with the help of a nurse, access realtime telemetry information such as heartbeat and pulse rate of the patient. The benefits are that medical expertise can be provided anytime, anywhere, as long as a robot is present there. This robot is one of my alltime favorite applications of robotic telepresence.
Da Vinci (Intuitive Surgical)
The Da Vinci robot is designed to enable surgeons to conduct surgeries remotely. It has multiple articulated arms that can hold a variety of tools – even those that a doctor would not be able to use with his (skilled) hands. The robot is often used to provide surgeries on patients in developing countries where the local doctors lack the skill and/or simply not enough of them available. Interestingly, the robot has proved very effective for local surgeries as well, particularly the types of surgeries that are performed in confined organs of the body – such as prostate surgeries.
TiLR (RoboDynamics)
For obvious reasons, TiLR is a robot I know intimately. What may not be obvious are all the different applications that TiLR has proved invaluable. Since August 2008, TiLR has been deployed in factories, warehouses, and offices. In all cases, TiLR routinely saved travel for the user. In factories we were able to deliver maintenance on specialized machines from a specialist in a different state. In a bank we were able to save downtime for employees who no longer needed to travel to regional headquarters to report to their superiors. And in enterprise settings we enabled remote workers to participate in informal office conversations that they would never be otherwise privy to. TiLR has saved time and travel while increasing productivity and collaboration, in virtually every setting we placed him in.
In all three examples above, and there are many more, the unintended benefit is a reduction in carbon footprint.
And this is just the beginning. Robotic telepresence is merely one application in robotics. Here at RoboDynamics, while we remain very interested in robotic telepresence, our goal has always been to develop a platform that can support telepresence – but also – a myriad of other applications including commercial security, promotions and advertising, customer support, and even helping the disabled and elderly. You can check out my Google Tech Talks on robotic telepresence where I discuss some of these applications and our general roadmap as we develop these technologies.
Gartner Gives Love to Robotic Telepresence
November 22nd, 2010Gartner’s Jackie Fenn has published Executive Report called Six New Technologies That Will Reshape Your Business. You can read the summary of it here (registration required).
I’m of course very glad that serious research houses are giving Robotic Telepresence their due respect, and finally distinguishing the difference between traditional HD Conferencing and Mobile Robotic Telepresence correctly.
Tags: Gartner, Jackie Fenn, Mobile Robots, Research, robotic telepresence, Robotics
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