Warrens of gates, shopping and endless corridors; airports are confusing places – especially when you've stumbled off a red-eye flight to a country that doesn't speak your language. But at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, there's help waiting at the information desk that never sleeps and speaks any language: Hitachi's EMIEW3, a 90cm-tall, red-headed humanoid robot that can direct weary travellers to stores, connecting flights and whatever else they need to find.
Confused where to catch your connecting flight? EMIEW3 can roll along on its four wheels, standing up again if it trips, in order to lead you all the way to your gate. Looking for a coffee shop? Ask the robot where to find a cafe, and it will list the options. Want to do a bit of shopping? One robot can lead you to the shop, where it can instruct another EMIEW3 to act as a personal shopper.
EMIEW3 can answer questions in multiple-languages, show relevant information such as shop locations or what facilities exist on a nearby display, and even roll alongside a visitor at up to 6kph in order to help them find their destination – and all entirely autonomously. It's the ultimate in social innovation – technology that helps solve the very human problem of communication when all other forms of help are lost in translation, a growing challenge as more and more of us travel internationally for work and holidays.
Understanding what people want is no easy task in a busy airport, but the proof-of-concept trial in Haneda demonstrated that the voice recognition was effective even in noisy conditions – sifting through public announcements and groups of tourists in the background – and showed that the sensor detection for navigation worked despite changeable conditions and lighting, explains Hideyuki Uchida, Senior Engineer, Robotics Business Promotion Department at Hitachi.
The original EMIEW was first developed in 2005, with version two arriving two years later, adding autonomous mobility designed to match a human walking pace, the ability to hear a particular person speaking amid background noise, and connectivity to search the web for information. Since then, Hitachi has used artificial intelligence for language processing and predictive movement, to better avoid collisions from unexpected angles, such as around a corner. Alongside the ability to right itself from a prone position if knocked over and to communicate with other units to better co-ordinate, EMIEW3 includes the ability to spot which people need assistance, in order to proactively approach them – just as a helpful customer service staffer would, but with the added ability of speaking multiple-languages and acess to a web full of answers.
Indeed, that's the entire aim of EMIEW3: proactively working to help humans. Hitachi's aim is to create robots that co-exist safely beside humans, offering assistance precisely when needed. "When we think about coexistence of humans with robots, robots should not be receptive and waiting to be instructed; rather, robots should be proactively looking for people to provide services," says Uchida.
From a technical standpoint, the advancements in EMIEW3 largely come via its "remote brain". The intelligent processing of voice, images and language don't happen locally, but via a cloud-based platform. The connected nature of the robots means they can communicate with each other, taking over if one fails, or passing off instructions to other units: one EMIEW3 can direct a passenger to a souvenir shop, where a second can take over the job of helping find the perfect gift.
Despite more than a decade of work on the robotics system, there was still plenty for Hitachi to learn from the proof-of-concept experiment. The rolling robot was slowed down by rough flooring, in particular bumpy tiles installed to help blind people navigate. The main challenge wasn't the technology, but communicating to people that the robot was there for them. "Through the trial, one of the key findings was that it is necessary to inform the role of EMIEW3 more clearly," says Uchida. "When EMIEW3 said ‘I’m providing route guidance service,’ some passengers did not understand that EMIEW3 was serving the alternative role of the guide at information desk. As a result, they did not use EMIEW3."
Surveys of those travellers who did chat with the helpful robot suggest those who accidentally shunned it may have missed out. "Many passengers that took part in the trial enjoyed using the advanced service robot. Especially, when EMIEW3 moved together with the passenger and led the way to the destination, many of them gave us very positive feedback about their experience."
The robots have since been tested elsewhere, including at shopping malls that attract plenty of tourists. Uchida suggests the robots could be used for product promotions, as receptionists at offices and guides in museums – anywhere people could use a bit of help finding their way, using technology to overcome language barriers and other challenges raised by our shrinking world. "EMIEW3 was developed based on this concept," says Uchida. "The humanoid robot is a 'human friendly' robot, capable of a wide range of movements, and we believe it will be able to provide services to many people."
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Innovation for the future
*Modern life is saturated with data and technologies are emerging nearly every day – but how can we use these innovations to make a real difference to the world? Hitachi believes that Social Innovation should underpin everything it does, so it can find ways to tackle the biggest issues we face today.
Visit Social-Innovation.Hitachi to learn how Social Innovation is helping Hitachi drive change across the globe.*
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
