Flying robots to start serving in restaurants by end-2015

[orangetea]

For the sceptical, take a look at this fascinating 16 mins demo video of quadcopters recorded 1.5 yrs ago: [URL="http://www.ted.com/talks/raffaello_d_andrea_the_astounding_athletic_power_of_quadcopters"]The astounding athletic power of quadcopters[/URL] The algorithms controlling the quadcopters will ensure no food or liquid is spilt.

Technology is as good as the battery life.
Power trip , it will be another sgx moment.

The copters can also be fitted with a cam, great for PI, survellience.

The smart nation idea by LHL will be chalenging. Security spending will go up.

[brattzz]

smart = total surveillance to allocate the resources to deal with the real-time datas and issues!

precisely that singapore is small, we can DO IT!

expect plenty of solar-drones and air-balloons drones hovering around/above singapore that may never run out of fuel/battery!!

Sky-NET is coming!

[swakoo]

I am thinking how to prevent my kid to disturb the robots while serving? It is a magnet for the kids, I guess...

If u watch the earlier video i posted (youtube version below), it's ok if your kid disturbs the serving robots.

[swakoo]

After the robots are dressed for presentation in a restaurant...

[swakoo]

Down the road, someone will probably try to apply for a grant to widen the job scope of the robots to include entertaining the diners too...
(watch the ending part of this 16 min video)


ps: had to split post into 3 as only 1 video allowed per post

[Fish Head]

If the chance of success is 5%, it is worth to spend the 7 digits money to do this experiment. Think of it, we can reduce how many foreign workers by doing so.

But be careful with this trend. It will be the next wave of increasing inequality globally. Globalization had caused developed countries to loss millions of low skill job. Automation will remove even more low skills jobs everywhere in the world. Cashiers, drivers, courier service and etc will among the list that is going to disappear.

In Singapore, auto cashiers can be found in some NTUC, driver-less cars were recently tested in Chinese Garden. The day of automation may come sooner than many people expected.

[weijian]

This is a total waste of grants, i wonder who is the gov body that approves this! ....getting drones to be waiters...
Drones are better deployed for out-door activities, promos, events...etc..

A simple conveyor belt can serve well as proven by Sakae Sushi...

sometimes i wonder what are our gov thinking??!!

7 digits somemore!!

Yes. agree. The copters are not matured enough nor suitable to do the job yet. It looks cool in the video but when one is flying near you, the sound and the downdraft will drive fear into most people.
Not to mention that any motor will fail suddenly and the copter will fall like a rock.

And, one big bowl of soup is easily 3-4kg. You can imagine the amount of air that needs to be displaced in order to lift the whole copter+soup.

aiyo, dont be so negative LAH..
No failures or fear of looking stupid, how can mankind progress? I would like to place my trust that those folks have done their FMEA (failure mode effect analysis) and do have backup plans/fail safe functions. Sporeans choose the safe option, get blasted for not being creative/daring enough...choose an unchartered path and all other experts come blasting say it wouldn't work and waste of $!

[yeokiwi]

This is a total waste of grants, i wonder who is the gov body that approves this! ....getting drones to be waiters...
Drones are better deployed for out-door activities, promos, events...etc..

A simple conveyor belt can serve well as proven by Sakae Sushi...

sometimes i wonder what are our gov thinking??!!

7 digits somemore!!

Yes. agree. The copters are not matured enough nor suitable to do the job yet. It looks cool in the video but when one is flying near you, the sound and the downdraft will drive fear into most people.
Not to mention that any motor will fail suddenly and the copter will fall like a rock.

And, one big bowl of soup is easily 3-4kg. You can imagine the amount of air that needs to be displaced in order to lift the whole copter+soup.

aiyo, dont be so negative LAH..
No failures or fear of looking stupid, how can mankind progress? I would like to place my trust that those folks have done their FMEA (failure mode effect analysis) and do have backup plans/fail safe functions. Sporeans choose the safe option, get blasted for not being creative/daring enough...choose an unchartered path and all other experts come blasting say it wouldn't work and waste of $!

FMEA?? i doubt so..haha.

The restaurant setting has too much variable factors that have to be overcome.
The mere possibility that the robot will crash into customers is already impossible to overcome in the near foreseeable future.
And I am quite sure the customer will definitely end up in emergency department.
I had built a few before and played with them and I know how much damage they can cause with a full throttle smash or pure gravity pull. Especially those that can carry 3-4 kg of loads.

Outdoor setting is much more viable for these copters. Roof top checks, traffic monitoring, coastal monitoring and any places that are not easily accessible by land.

Even in outdoor, the operators probably will have to buy enough insurance to cover for injuries and damages.

[specuvestor]

Frankly it is those that have grown up with tech that are ironically more cautious about tech because we know what can go wrong. Like I posted in the Google car project, I would be very wary of driving an automated car without a manual override. Automated plane landing is good... but when Korean pilots can't land the plane with the auto-pilot disengaged, something is seriously wrong.

People have too much faith in tech and numbers nowadays

[opmi]

^^ false sense of security. Like boxing with gloves and american football with helmet. These protection make players whack even harder.