Every day, Anicet Mbida makes us discover an innovation that could well change the way we consume. This Monday, we will head to Japan in the FamiliMart supermarket chains, where we will no longer see employees restocking the shelves. It would henceforth be carried out by special robots, controlled remotely by storekeepers quietly installed in their living room.
For a long time, it was only office workers who could telecommute. Now, it is a practice which is also developing in the industry with storekeepers who work from home.
The first tests are currently taking place in Japan in FamiliMart supermarket chains. To respect the health protocol, we will no longer see employees restocking on the shelves. Instead, they will be special robots, remotely piloted by storekeepers quietly installed in their living room.
They use a virtual reality headset to see everything the robot sees, in all directions, while turning its head. They also use a kind of joystick gloves that will transcribe all the movements of their arms and hands to the robot. This allows them to take items and drop them off as if they were actually in the store. Real industrial teleworking!
Why a remote controlled robot? With artificial intelligence, we would have rather imagined fully autonomous robots.
Except that despite all the hype around artificial intelligence, the technology is far from complete. We cannot yet make robots as agile and as versatile as humans. This is why we are instead developing telepresence techniques, that is to say, remotely control robots to do the work for us.
Much has been said about autonomous taxis or delivery drones. However, since they bump into each other and are unreliable, most of the players in the sector have switched to taxis and delivery carts remotely controlled by humans. Industrial teleworking while waiting for the miracles of robotics.