(2 Apr 2018) LEAD IN:
There's a couple of new guys in town and they are taking Italy by storm.
One is a hotel concierge and the other sells cars.
Meet Robby and Cayuki Pepper - Italy's first dedicated interactive service robots.
STORY-LINE:
Dancing isn't usually on the to do list of the average hotel concierge, but Robby Pepper does things slightly differently.
As Italy's first robot concierge, Robby is not only here to answer questions but also to entertain clients in this resort hotel near Lake Garda.
The robot has been programmed to answer simple questions and is able to give information such as the location of the spa, restaurants and opening hours.
Marco Vescovi, is a product manager for the digital service company, Jampaa. He has been working on Robby Pepper for the past year.
"Robby Pepper will answer questions in three languages, Italian, English and German, the questions he can answer are the ones that have been taught to him, but naturally he came here to learn, and he will continuously be learning," he says.
"The questions he will be able to answer at the end of the season will be all those questions that the clients have asked him - this can happen because we are using a machine learning technology so the machine learns as it works."
Indeed, Robby Pepper is a supervised machine-learning robot.
If a client asks him a question in a way he does not recognise, the programmer can subsequently link the question to a programmed answer, thus enriching Pepper's vocabulary and knowledge.
As Pepper is just starting off, clients do need to be a little patient while waiting for a reply, but they still appear happy to interact with this new kind of concierge.
After exchanging a few words with Pepper, Mihail Slanina, a client from Moldavia congratulates the robot on his skills.
"He's like a real person, he's really good. He talks, he shook my hand, and he's perfect, good job robot!"
Erica Mingotto, a researcher at the Management Department of Ca' Foscari University, collaborated on the project. She explains that the aim of the robot is not to replace receptionists or concierges, but to relieve human receptionists from routine and mundane activities.
"Automation can intervene and thus deal with simpler, everyday routine activities, leaving and liberating human resources so that they can take care of the relationship with the clients in a deeper way or they can carry out other activities more efficiently. So what we can imagine in the future is not the substitution of all human resources, but a side-by-side collaboration with machines, just like we see here."
For now, receptionist Sabrina Bechahed says she isn't worried about losing her job to a robot.
"I think it is a novelty, one that you can't find everywhere, that can help both clients and us as receptionists because we are often busy so perhaps a simple answer, an information given on the Wi-Fi or where the bathroom or Spa is located can help a lot."
And when asked whether he'll ever replace humans, Robby Pepper has been programmed to give the perfect answer:
"I'm a social robot, I work with a human and I need a human to improve my skills".
Over in Roncadelle in Lombardy, Pepper's brother, named Cayuki, is also attracting some attention as Italy's first robotic car dealer.
The newcomer has his picture on the entrance of the shopping centre where the car dealership Cayu is located. Inside, he's ready to chat with any available bypassers.
Cayuki has been programmed to give information on cars, play games, and gather client personal information so they can be contacted at a later stage.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
