Robot Makers Unveil New Consumer, Industrial Aides

For over nine in 10 people in this world, robots are out of sight, out of mind. But this week, 99% of CES attendees in the Las Vegas Convention Center came across one.

Why the discrepancy?

For starters, it's easy to generate buzz when you bring a robotic ping-pong player or teleoperated robotic hands to a tech conference. Neither have consumer applications, but they definitely draw a crowd.

We did see some bots with utility:

• Samsung unveiled Ballie, an AI-powered robotic ball that functions as a smart home assistant.
• A few consumer bot makers were among the 2020 CES Innovation Award honorees.
• Charmin made a concept robot that brings you toilet paper when you need it...talk about a killer app.

But despite the excitement, many of the robots are just concepts. Plus, the consumer robot business model is a tough nut to crack. More capable bots (like Sony's Aibo) are steeply priced.

On the delivery side

Ford became the first customer for Agility Robotics's two-legged, five-foot robot Digit, which walked around CES and took some carefully rehearsed bows. While the robot won't be dunking on you anytime soon, it could eventually deliver packages from Ford AVs. For now, Ford tells me Digit will be used for R&D.

What does it take to be the alpha bot?

Far away from Las Vegas la la land, Walmart unveiled Alphabot, a robotic platform for the retailer's growing ecommerce business. The floor-to-ceiling warehouse and autonomous cart system delivers shelf-stable, refrigerated, and frozen groceries to employees, who tag and bag them for online orders.

Bottom line: Robot density (think bots per capita) is on the rise due to commercial and industrial deployments...not expansion into households.

+ While we're here: This week, a state-run Chinese newspaper said AI and robots won't lead to significant job displacement. Do you agree? Let me know.