| Developers: | Alibaba Group |
| Date of the premiere of the system: | September, 2018 |
| Branches: | Tourism, hotel and restaurant business |
| Technology: | Robotics |
2018: Announcement
The Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group enters the market of commercial robotics. At the Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference 2018 conference which was taking place in the city of Hangzhou from September 19 to September 22, 2018 the company provided Space Egg — the robot porter for hotel business.
The robot of rounded shape in the body from aluminum has height about 1 m and is intended for delivery of orders in customer numbers. Being guided in space using cameras and laser sensors, Space Egg is capable to move with a speed of 1 m/s.
Since October, 2018 the robot porter of Alibaba will appear in one of hotels of Hangzhou where it will execute different instructions, such as delivery in number of food or fresh linen. Guests will be able to communicate with Space Egg using voice commands, gestures and touches. The robot thanks to AliGenie - to specialized software, the same will understand people that is used as a virtual assistant in the "smart" columns Tmall Genie developed by Alibaba A.I. Labs.
Speaking at the presentation, the general manager of Alibaba A.I. Labs Chen Lijuan called the robot by the next stage of evolution and a step towards to "smart" hotels. He also added that Space Egg will become the ideal assistant for hotel guests, will provide comfort and fast accomplishment of instructions.
Plans of Alibaba concerning Space Egg are not limited only to the hotel industry. As the press secretary of the company reported the The Verge edition, Alibaba already works on modification of the robot for use in hospitals - with its help it is supposed to deliver to patients medicines. Besides, other scopes of application — for example, at restaurants and office buildings are considered.[1]
It should be added that the world market of service robots endures rise. According to the forecast of the International federation of robotics (International Federation of Robotics, IFR), during the period from 2018 to 2020 sales on it will grow on average for 20-25%, and revenue in a segment of robots for professional services will reach $27 billion[2]
Notes
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