How can AI be used in robotics?
A robot can be defined as any machine that can carry out actions or tasks in an automatic way. AI-enabled robots can process and use real-time data about their environment, allowing them to perform more complex tasks.
For example, some robot vacuum cleaners now use data from built-in cameras to map homes, identify furniture and avoid collisions by responding to real-time environmental feedback. This enables them to produce detailed maps of people’s homes, so that the robot can be directed to clean a specific area of the house via an app or AI assistant, like Amazon’s Alexa. Freeing up time and resources is a key benefit of using AI to carry out tasks that are normally performed by a human.
Some healthcare providers are also beginning to make use of robotics. Healthcare robots can help human healthcare professionals to perform care-giving tasks, and can adapt their actions to specific environments and requirements. These include physical care – such as lifting patients, or social and emotional care – such as providing companionship and therapy.
However, the use of robotics in healthcare is limited. This is partly because the technology design is not yet well matched to potential uses. Healthcare staff report that robotic assistants can be too heavy to move or too limited in their capabilities to meet patient needs. Instead of reducing the workload of human caregivers, it can actually increase it, if the robots need human involvement or supervision.