By Avelyn Ng
Over a year ago, NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) introduced a robot named E-bot at the W Café in Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability to deliver food orders to tenants across the seven-storey building.
The trial hoped to promote robots as a viable solution and connect keen employers with system integrators that can make the option a reality.
Overcoming Challenges
In the process of pilot testing, e2i identified that robots are well-suited to be deployed where customers can help themselves, where there is repetitive work or manual labour, and where the environment is hazardous to the workers.
Together with Aitech Robotics and Automation (see story beside), they managed to meet the following requirements using various technologies: overcome navigation obstacles such as crowd, slopes and lifts; enable communication with the control centre to alert faults and request for technical support; and integrate mobile application and payment features for a seamless ordering process.
The fine-tuning process of the E-bot is a continuous one. Most recently, enhanced safety features such as height sensors were built to detect possible falls. E-bot can also send an alert through the cloud system to shut down automatically during emergencies and prevent any damage.
Key Takeaways
W Café’s productivity and business have increased, but e2i Chief Executive Officer Gilbert Tan said that it was only possible with cooperation from all stakeholders.
He explained: “Mindsets need to change – workers to adapt to work alongside robots, customers to exercise a higher degree of self-service, business owners to re-design jobs and invest in staff up-skilling.”
Cecelia Chung, 56, who started work at W Café over a year ago after being a housewife for 26 years, said that initially she was nervous about operating the robot as she was unfamiliar with technology and all the buttons, but she eventually got a handle on things after a few weeks of training.
“With the robot, I can now stay at the shop to manage walk-in customers during peak hours and prepare food for external deliveries,” she added.
Since then, e2i has received interest from partners in the service industries who are looking at leveraging the concept in other areas of deployment such as document delivery, concierge services or for marketing purposes.
Now that the E-bot has proven to be a great help in serving food, Gilbert said surveillance and cleaning will possibly come next. They are currently exploring the added functionalities with the vendor.
Source: NTUC This Week
