SingBot Robotics has developed a service robot called Dennis.
A large restaurant
chain, Gustavo’s, has recently purchased a number of Dennis robots to use as waiters
for one of its restaurants in Singapore (see Figure 3).
Customers can give Dennis their orders in two ways:
● They can talk directly to him, in which case Dennis uses pattern recognition
to distinguish menu items ordered.
● They can enter their choice directly on a touch screen (see Figure 4).
When the order is ready, Dennis collects it from the kitchen and brings it to the table.
Customers can pay by swiping their credit card above Dennis’s card reader.
The marketing manager at Gustavo’s has said that the robots improve the convenience
and efficiency of the ordering process. She added, “In their feedback, customers tell us
that Dennis makes their experience more memorable.”
The managers at Gustavo’s are considering the introduction of Dennis robots in all their
restaurants.
1. Identify two sensors that Dennis needs in order to operate successfully in the
restaurant. [2]
2. Identify two methods that the marketing manager at Gustavo’s could use to
collect feedback from customers about Dennis.[2]
3. Identify two characteristics of a social robot. [2]
4. Customers speak to Dennis to give him their orders. Dennis uses natural
language processing to understand what has been said to him.
Explain three reasons why Dennis may not be able to understand what
customers are saying to him. [6]
1. proximity sensor and sound recognition sensor
2. questionnaires and observations of Dennis interacting with customers
3. It is designed to communicate and interact with humans in a socially acceptable
manner, while also being programmed to do many routine tasks, however it does
not always respond appropriately to unknown situations.
4. Although Dennis has speech sensors and is able to process what customers are
saying to him using natural language and algorithms, some forms of speeches
may not be understood by him, whether it’s a rare dialect or accent that it can
barely understand, or uncommon words trained to a robot.
Firstly, a common issue may be muffled speech or bad pronunciation of
words or orders given to the robot. This can occur when the person is wearing a
mask, having a sore throat or maybe can’t speak fluent English, in the
consideration that Dennis is trained with an English algorithm. Furthermore,
Dennis may be able to understand only some dialects or accents of English, may
it be British, American or Australian. Other non-standard accents may be
unrecognizable or do not have much data collected to it, such that the robot can
translate it into natural language. Lastly, customers may also use common
day-to-day words that are informal or unclear to the robot.
Overall, the role of service robots such as Dennis need a more
considerable approach to their integration in the physical world, such as the
application of more languages or recognition to new accents and dialects, while
also taking into account the understandability of both Dennis and the customers
to ensure a mutually beneficial experience.
