Robotics-as-a-Service model accelerates the business innovation

AI and robotics are the hot topics and in a rising developing trend. They have spread their spectrum in different industries and applications globally. From manufacturing workshop, to retail, hospitality, public service, education and healthcare, intelligent robots are complementing a large quantity of activities which humans perform, speedily and efficiently. With the explosive growth in cloud-based storage, computing and artificial intelligence (AI), robotics as a service (RaaS) business models are gaining a lot of traction worldwide.

RaaS model offers highly adaptable business solutions to different customers with a variety of tasks and options. They can be used as rental or lease-purchase options depending on the needs of customers. Robots enable companies to complete more work done in a shorter time through virtual agents. RaaS has proved to be a blessing to different sectors including manufacturing which requires heavy operational work in warehouses, plants and distribution centers.

The combination of AI and robotics has already awed everyone with the development of robotics. AI not only allows intelligent service robotics to operate independently but give them the programmable API to make decisions on what APP or content should be put into the robots. The data captured and collected by robots in different industries and services can be stored in the cloud. This data can be further used in mass setups where a fleet of robots are required. This enables companies to improve productivity at minimal costs, build a smart business network and let employees focus on higher-value tasks.

Companies operating on RaaS model provide customers with services more responsive than long-cycle and capital-intensive purchases. It helps the customers save upfront investments and operating expenses before venturing into any highly operational business. RaaS firms also benefit from value-based pricing, faster innovation cycle and close connection with the product-market fit. Some of the known names employing RaaS business models include Sanbot Robotics, Liquid Robotics, InTouch Health, PrecisionHawk, and InVia Robotics.

This growth in RaaS is supported by macroeconomic trends that favor productivity solutions which avoid huge capital expenditure and mostly dependent upon 5G and MEC. According to an IDC report, by 2019, 30% of commercial service robots will be in the form of a “Robot-as-a-Service” business model, reducing costs for robot deployment. The report further estimates that by 2020, 60% of robots will depend on cloud-based software to define new skills, AI capabilities, and application programs, leading to the formation of a robotics cloud marketplace.

The emergence of RaaS represents a broader move to services-based models in the technological landscape. These models have the fastest growth potential for adoption and offer an attractive value proposition to different industries and businesses. Needless to say, RaaS is going to accelerate innovation thus disrupting and changing the state of traditional businesses in many industries globally.

Robot helps catering business expand and create more value

Hideo Sawada from HIS points out: "in the next 5 years, about 70% of the work in the Japanese hotel industry will be automated. It takes only one to two years for the hotel to take back the cost. But because the hotel is open for 24 hours and they don't need a holiday, you will eventually find that using intelligent robots is the most economical way. "

But according to Michael Chui, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, much work in the catering industry and the accommodation industry is easy to be automated.

These jobs have not been replaced by the advanced AI robots because they need to provide human services. When a cup of coffee is ordered or a hotel is checked in, people need to communicate with human staff. But a robot manufacturing company betting that when robots enter these service industries, people will be more willing to communicate with robot the service robots. They are also convinced that increasing robots do not mean that human jobs are necessarily reduced.

Commercial service robots have entered the catering and accommodation and the cost of these robots has fallen sharply in recent years. According to the Boston consulting company, the cost of robots has fallen by 40% since 2005. At the same time, the cost of workers is becoming more and more expensive, because legislation in some cities and regions in the United States has raised the minimum income level.

The physical brick-and-mortar stores with traditional retail modes are finding it harder to find success in this hi-tech era and upgrading retail stores into the new era is imperative, and these upgrades are happening daily. Pizza Hut Malaysia took a necessary step, introducing Sanbot robots to promote its store.

Although the catering employs fewer workers, the increasing number of branches leads to an overall increase in the number of catering workers. The nature of the human staff changes when intelligent robots replace their basic jobs. Their job now is to introduce more products to customers, such as deposits, car loans and so on, which can bring more value to their employers.

The present robotic services for retail, and will be better

In a large shopping mall, especially the complex one, people are always unfamiliar with it but they need to find the right brand or product they need. Thus, customer receptionist is necessary. A problem is coming: repetitive work makes receptionist tired and bored so they may lose temper to customers. Then, an intelligent service robot that never feels tired makes things different.

A robot’s powerful artificial intelligence brings a great number of services for welcome reception, route guidance, all-around inquiry assistant, smiling accompanying assistant and more.

The robot standing around the door of the shopping mall attracts potential customers to go into the mall. With facial recognition technology and smart sensors, Sanbot broadcasts pleasing welcoming lines, giving customers different experience and adding buying intention. This will add unexpected business sales and value to the shopping mall.

The mall managers can the robots for retail in each floor. These robots introduce customers to the commodity area by voice, or display the map on the screen to the customer guide. When customers want to know a brand, or looking for a product, they just feel free to inquiry the robot. It’s a more convenient way than manual services because human staffs are not always in good situations to serve customers 24/7.

When the mall held a large-scale promotional activity, the commercial service robots can also play an important role, such as the singing and dancing performance, talking comic dialogue with the site voice interaction, inviting them to participate in the lucky draw, somatosensory games to attract onlookers. This will popularize the mall or store and develop more potential customers.

Sanbot Max will offer robot services for financial sector

November 23, 2017 - The China Mobile Global Partnership Conference 2017 was held at the Poly World Trade Center in Guangzhou, China. With theme of “Creating the Future Together, Smart Connecting to Everything”, China Mobile showcased the latest achievements from roughly 200 well-known hi-tech enterprises including IBM, Huawei, Tencent, and Samsung, all of whom are global partners of China Mobile. One technological achievement at the event was Sanbot Max, a robot jointly developed QIHAN Technology and powered by IBM’s system.

QIHAN Technology has been in cooperation with IBM since it launched its first intelligent commercial service robot Sanbot Elf. Powered by IBM Watson AI system, Sanbot Elf has been working for scenarios in more than 30 countries, benefiting traditional businesses and the customers. Again, QIHAN introduces IBM technology for the newest service robot Sanbot Max.

Sanbot Max has an open API, which allows this robot to be customized to fit special business model. In the financial sector, Sanbot Max was customized to be the financial service assistant. The intelligent humanoid robot, with the IBM AI, gives Sanbot the ability to perform this job to perfection. Let’s see what Sanbot Max can do for finance:

· Sanbot can answer common banking questions customers have. These questions could be about transferring money, stolen or lost credit card, and other common banking procedures.

· Sanbot can comprehend and analyze an investor’s financial status, goals, and risk preferences. Using this knowledge, the advanced service robot will be able to provide unique and personal financial planning and recommendations. Its Artificial Intelligence allows it to have a near flawless dialogue and interaction with the investor.

· Using its powerful IBM-powered brain, Sanbot Max will find the best path towards a person’s financial goals and dynamically monitor their assets in real-time. Sanbot Max’s brain also gives it the ability to use this data to offer recommendations for investment adjustments and asset allocation, leading to more profit.

· Sanbot + IBM AI system gives Sanbot Max an incredible learning ability, particularly in the dialogue interaction with a human. With this ability, Sanbot can better serve the customer.

· There is more. Sanbot Max also carries a sophisticated facial recognition system and memory. Sanbot Max can remember names, age, and even the mood of someone. Sanbot Max can identify VIP customers or a customer’s personalized service. This means that if you walked into a bank, Sanbot would recognize you and what services you need, saving you lots of time.

Visitors got to see and demo all of the functions, which amazed them. Banks have started to see the advantages of Sanbot Max particularly with regards to data collection. Customers interacting with Sanbot everyday can help banks create a data platform. Sanbot Max can analyze and process these data and present it in a way for the bank to understand the data and use it to better their services.

Sanbot Max also has great physical characteristics. Sanbot Max can carry objects up to 75 Kg by adjusting its center of gravity, more than the average adult. Sanbot has a max speed of 5m/s, which is faster than the average human walking speed of 1.5 m/s. Plus, Sanbot has the ability the attach 3rd party devices such as printers, ATM machines, and more to help businesses expand and improve.

Many of these features are thanks to IBM. IBM China Research Institute has been researching AI, cloud computing, IoT, and the application of chain block technology. The advanced technology China IBM has will be a great help to industries across the world, medicine, environmental problems, logistics, and more.

Sanbot Max is ready to do its share to help with the research and application. In the future, QIHAN will cooperate with IBM to add more advanced AI services like Deep Understanding, Knowledge Reasoning, Continuous Learning and Multi-modal Interaction capabilities to Sanbot Max for the financial sector.

Business witnessed Sanbot commercial service robot at International Technical Fair

The 73rd International Technical Fair kicked off here on Monday, bringing together more than 600 exhibitors from some 40 countries and regions.

The six-day event includes ten specialized exhibitions, such as artificial intelligent robotics and automation, transport and auto service equipment, power engineering and ecology, and chemical industry.

According to the organizers, 113 companies participated for the first time this year.

Meanwhile, over 40 innovations from around the world, including the Sanbot robot made by the Chinese company Qihan Technology Co, are participating in the international competition for innovative products.

Sanbot Robotic benefits to customers:

1.Sanbot facilitates processes and communication between clients and employees;
2.The commercial service robot allows employees to focus on complex business processes while serving customers for basic processes;
3.Improve customer experience with new technologies and attract their attention;
4.Cost savings.


Sanbot robotic functions:

1.Receiving customer queries, providing information and customer support;
2.Providing entertainment to keep the customer's attention;
3.Visual identification of the customer;
4.Able to use as an alarm system for certain objects.


Emil Karanikolov, Bulgarian economy minister, said the fair was the most prestigious technological event in the Balkans.

"The participation of companies from nearly 40 countries, which exhibit not only technology and machinery, but also cutting-edge solutions for industry and the home, is a symbol of a dynamically developing economy characterized by sustainability, competitiveness and a European quality standard," Karanikolov said.

Artificial Intelligence helps with the upgrading of hotel services

Today, intelligent robot has been the “spokesperson”, more than the carrier of artificial intelligence. Hilton and IBM Watson conducted one test on the robot receptionist; Aloft Hotel under Starwood began using intelligent robot to deliver things for passengers; Crowne Plaza Hotel has also introduced the similar hotel service robot. Except for the reception, delivering things, weather broadcasting. The commercial service robots can offer activities and promotions service for hotel.

The turnover rate in hotel industry is high, so as the training cost. Artificial intelligent going into hotel is an invertible trend. Not only the hotel service robot suppliers, but also the hotel managers and investors have realized this point. And now, there are more than 200 hotels that have introduced the artificial intelligent robot for hotel service.

“With the subversion and application of intelligent service robot and AI technology, hotel industry, as the representative area of high-density service labor, will be the key area the service robot will go to.”, Xun Liang, the Secretary General of China Wisdom Hotel League, introduced.

Xun Liang told more, service robots which can be applied into hotels includes reception and guide robot, self check-in service robot, room emotional robot, autonomous delivery robot, autonomous robot security guards, vending robot, luggage fetching robot and restaurant service robot and others. Each robot owns the unique working capabilities finish their work.

Some time ago, Fliggy, the sub-rand of Alibaba Group announced it would create the artificial intelligent hotel in Hangzhou City. Till now, in some of the rooms of its High Xuan Spa Hotel have supported to control the curtain, light, TV and other devices by voice commands via the intelligent robot box “Tmall Elf One”. And passengers can call room service directly with the robot.

He Zhuangkong, the CKO of Shandong Travel Hotel Association, pointed out, “outdated ideological concept limited the AI application into hotels, and there are many hotels that have not noted the evolution of artificial intelligence. Though the investment into AI in hotels is high, the benefits to hotels are incalculable in the long term. And of course, artificial intelligence robots cannot overtake human services totally.”

NetPosa and QIHAN Technology aim to lead intelligence industry

The Vice President Gao Jun of the listed company, NetPosa, (stock code 300367), led his team to visit QIHAN Technology. QIHAN president Lin Lude and technical director Zhuang Yongjun discussed and Gao had a close communication about the commercial applications and technological potentials of Sanbot robot.

NetPosa is a domestic leading video surveillance products and solutions provider and has been moving towards AI transformation during the past two years. When receiving the media interviews, NetPosa leaders stated many times that AI is going to be the main trend in security in at least 10 years, and that NetPosa wants to be the leader in this field. With this vision in hand, Vice President Gao Jun led his team to the Chinese famous robot R&D enterprise QIHAN Technology, to discuss cooperation between these two companies, leading to ways to innovate the market and the world.  

Zhuang Yongjun discussed with Mr. Gao Jun about the research between the two companies and the research and development of the Sanbot brand and the robot series. The Sanbot brand was launched in 2014, and till now, QIHAN launched Sanbot Elf commercial service robot, Sanbot Nano home robot, and Sanbot King Kong intelligent robot for hospitality enterprises specially. QIHAN now owned over 200 unique patents covering machine vision recognition, multi-axis control, and big data analysis, etc.

However, Zhuang stressed that QIHAN Technology will not only pay attention to innovative technologies but also the applications of these technologies. Not only the interactive experience and visual intelligence, Sanbot King Kong is also capable of carrying cargo up to 75Kg, free movements in complex environments, autonomous mapping, a top moving speed of 5 meters per second, and carry two screen (one on each side), printers, trays, and other third-party devices, expanding its functionality. All of these functions are crucial in making this humanoid service robot lead the industry and be applicable to governments, businesses, and many more industries.

Lin Lude introduced the advantages of Sanbot robot platform and its attributes of QIHAN Technology’s “Robot + Various Industries” strategy to Gao Jun. Lin states that technology must be combined with application scenarios to create business value. To that end, the development of these robots has opened these standards to the world. Open API and open SDK, allows the robot to integrate software and programs to fit into many businesses. This strategy has seen a rapid increase in the expansion of the application scene of Sanbot. In the past two years, QIHAN has pushed forward the open API robot into many scenarios, including the beauty industry, retail, catering, medical, banking, customs, courts, and more.  

In the end, Gao Jun said the technology research and development of QIHAN is very impressive and a prospect is expected. The two sides discussed how to cooperate with each other, discussing business models, development prospects and more. QIHAN Technology has reached a concession that the two sides will work together to develop AI robots, and jointly promote the development of hi-tech/AI industries.

Robotics-as-a-service helps your business in various ways

Anyone who's familiar with cloud computing might know about software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, and other "as-a-service" delivery models. But they might be not be aware of the latest iteration: robotics-as-a-service (RaaS).

RaaS also leverages the cloud, and makes it possible for organizations to integrate robots and embedded devices into the web and cloud computing environments. This capability will become increasingly important as robots become more common in work environments such as warehouses, distribution centers, and stores.

With RaaS, data captured by artificial intelligent robots — such as customer preferences or inventory status — can be stored on a cloud-based system and retrieved as needed by human workers. This type of service can provide even more value if a company is operating a fleet of hundreds of robots, each performing a variety of tasks.

The RaaS provider could handle maintenance of the robots as well as integration between the robots and databases used across the enterprise. The advantages of this model, much like with cloud services in general, can include cost savings, easier management and scalability, and greater flexibility.

Currently the term "robotics-as-a service" is used to describe two separate robotics approaches, said Dan Kara, practice director for innovative AI robotics at research firm ABI Research.

First there is RaaS as a technical method. Often referred to as "Cloud service humanoid robots," it includes internet-connected robots using cloud based, pay-as-you-go, computational and data storage resources.

RaaS is also the term applied to business models where robotics systems are rented on a monthly or quarterly basis, with often with technical support, real-time monitoring, and other services included.

Technical- and business-oriented RaaS approaches are often combined, Kara said.

The emergence of RaaS reflects the broader move to services-based models in technology.

"The general trend among many technology providers is a long-term migration away from selling products to selling services beyond the usual incremental revenue from support, maintenance and upgrades charges," Kara said. "Services are recurrent revenue, and are looked on favorably by both technology providers and the investment community. Like the technology sector at large, suppliers of commercial service robot have adopted robotics-as-a-service business models and this trend is accelerating."

Both users of robotics technologies and robotics suppliers benefit from RaaS business arrangements, Kara said. "Service-oriented solutions are not uncommon in the robotics sector, where the high cost of platforms and risk aversion to new technologies and applications can impede growth," he said.

In addition, for some types of robotic systems a business model that relies on hardware sales is untenable, even if there are charges for maintenance, upgrades, customization and so on. There are also technical reasons for the RaaS approach, Kara said. For example, the computational resources available for a given advanced AI robot might be inadequate for the task at hand. In this case, a cloud robotics approach might be suitable.

Robotics companies that employ a RaaS business model typically offer emerging technologies whose value proposition and total cost of ownership are largely unknown. Kara said.

Representative companies employing a RaaS business model include PrecisionHawk (drone-based surveying for agriculture), Sanbot (Robot for home, enterprises, retail, hospitality, healthcare and education), Aethon (mobile robots for healthcare logistics), InTouch Health (mobile robotic telepresence), and Liquid Robotics (unmanned underwater vehicles).