Robots at CES 2018: Service Robots

January 2018

Yujin Robot Co. Ltd

They had their GoCart service robot driving around outside their booth and delivering treats (Fig. 3-5).
It was one of the only autonomous mobile robots at CES that was moving amongst people and avoiding obstacles.
To achieve this they have packed in a lot of sensors. There’s 2 stereo cameras (facing opposite directions on the top of the robot), at least one Kinect-like 3D depth sensor is visible on the lift-up lid, and there’s multiple 2D LiDARs around the circumference of the base.
It was driving loops around their booth, demonstrating their stereo-based localization system and obstacle avoidance.

They also had a demo of their iClebo cleaning robot in a simulated room with floorboards (Fig. 2).

Website: en.yujinrobot.com

Fig. 1:
The Yujin booth.

Fig. 2:
Demo area for iClebo.

Fig. 3:

Fig. 4:

Fig. 5:

Video 1:
The GoCart service robot was driving around
outside their booth and delivering treats.

ARIS by Youibot

They were showing their ARIS (Autonomous Robotic Inspection System) that was developed with help from the HAX Startup Accelerator.
Unfortunately the robot on display was not actually moving.

It looks like they used a robot arm from AUBO Robotics, mounted on a custom mobile base.
It has a Hukoyo 2D LiDAR sensor and localizes using GPS RTK.
I asked them about their 3D imaging system but I can’t remember the details. Sorry!

Fig. 6:

Qubi by EQL Technology Inc.

They have a developed a robot vacuum cleaner with a detachable upper body.
The robot can dock in its charging station and the base can detach to go clean your floor.
Then the base can return and re-join its body, which incorporates a screen “face”, microphone, speakers and at least one camera.
Website: www.eql.com.tw/robot-qubi/

Fig. 7:

Fig. 8:

Fig. 9:
Video 2:
Marketing video. At 2min 15sec
you can see the vacuum robot
dock with the upper body.

EQL Technology Inc.

Dash by Five Elements Robotics

“Dash” is a robotic shopping cart (shopping trolley) that will follow you around.
It’s pitched at retail stores, to improve the customer experience.
The company has other robots like the “Budgee”, which is a robot designed for carrying your things, for tele-presense or for remote-monitoring.
Website: www.5elementsrobotics.com

Fig. 10:

Csjbot (Suzhou Pangolin Robot Corp. Ltd)

They were demonstrating their robot “Alice” that has a large touch screen (Fig. 11-12), and “Amy”, that carries a tray for holding items (Fig. 13-14).

Their website also shows a hotel robot called “Oba”, which can be seen looking cute in various situations, like like outside a French Café (Fig. 15).
One photo in particular shows their robot in a hotel (Fig. 16), substituted in place of Savioke’s “SaviOne” robot (Fig. 17).

Website: en.csjbot.com

Fig. 11:
The Csj booth, with Alice (left).

Fig. 12:
Alice the robot.

Fig. 13:
Amy the robot.

Fig. 14:
Amy carries some flyers.
Fig. 15:
Oba outside of a French Café.
Fig. 16:
Oba attends to a hotel guest.
Fig. 17:
The original photo with SaviOne.
Video 3:
This shows Oba trying to navigate
around some pesky children in a
shopping center (mall).

Suzhou Pangolin Robot Corp., Ltd.

Sanbot (Qihan Technology Co. Ltd)

They were demonstrating their “Elf” and “King Kong” robots, which are basically just touchscreens on a mobile base.
The King Kong is the larger yellow-colored model, with two screens for information or advertising. It has various features not found on similar robots: two cameras on the face in a stereo pair, a depth sensor and omni-directional wheels.
A similarly large robot called “Max” was dislayed in a poster.
Another smaller robot called “Nano” has just a screen-face.
Website: en.sanbot.com

Fig. 18:
Sanbot Elf robots.

Fig. 19:
Sanbot Elf.

Fig. 20:
The large robot poster in the
background is the Sanbot Max.
They didn’t have the real robot
on display.

.

Video 4:
The King Kong robot.

Fig. 21:
Elf and King Kong robots.

Fig. 22:
King Kong robot.

Fig. 23:
Sanbot Nano.

Heasy by Hease Robotics

They were showing their Heasy customer service robot.
It’s basically a giant touchscreen on wheels, designed to roll around a shopping center and provide information.
Website: www.heaserobotics.com

Despite what their banner says, this is not the “world first robot kiosk dedicated to…” anything, because other companies based in Asia and Europe have been demonstrating similar products for years.
For example, PAL Robotics were testing their REEM-H1 in a shopping mall back in 2010:
www.youtube.com/4X2sI2HLsw8

Fig. 24:

FutureRobot Co. Ltd

They were demonstrating their FURo-Desk robot, which is a self-service point-of-sale system with a screen-face (Fig. 25).
They also have FURo-D, which is basically a face with a giant computer screen,
designed to be an information kiosk or to display advertising (Fig. 26).
Not on display was a little robot called FURo-iCare, which is a social robot that looks similar to Jibo.
Website: www.futurerobot.com/en/

Fig. 25:
The FURo-Desk POS robot.

Fig. 26:
The FURo-D robot.

Hangzhou Amy Robotics Co. Ltd

They were demonstrating their Amy A1 service robot which is designed as a family assistant, for education or for tele-conferencing.
It’s basically a screen on a mobile base, with a 3D depth sensor in the body.

Fig. 27:
The AMY Robotics booth.

Fig. 28:
AMY-A1 service robot.

Fig. 29:
Use cases for AMY-A1.

YYD Robo

They were showing their model Y128A “Business Greeting Robot” and model YYD-3 “Family Companion Robot”.
The YYD-3 is actually a small robot but they’ve built a detachable lower-body that you fit it onto, to raise it to human height (Fig. 32).
Website: us.yydrobo.com

Fig. 30:
The YDD Robo booth.

Fig. 31:
Y128A Business Greeting Robot.

Fig. 32:
YYD-3 Family Companion Robot.

Hancom MDS

They were advertising their “Docent” service robot, which is a museum guide, as well as AGVs and a crate loading robot.
All this technology came from their recent acquisition of CoreBell.


Fig. 33:
Docent service robot.

Fig. 34:
Poster for their AGVs
and palletizing robot.

Maava by Event Bots

A customer service or information robot.
They offer two models: “TiKi” and “Maava”.
Website: www.event-bots.com

Fig. 35:
Maava robot.

New Era AI Robotic Inc.

This company was advertising their service robot and mobile robot base.
Website: www.neweraai.com/us_en/

Fig. 36:
The N.ERA booth.

Beijing Evolver Robotics Technology Co. Ltd

This Fabo E01 robot was taking a break from delivering brochures and recharging its batteries.
Website: www.efrobot.com (in Chinese)

Fig. 37:
Fabo E01 robot in its
charging dock.

Tennibot

An autonomous mobile robot that collects tennis balls.
Website: www.tennibot.com

This robot is like a Roomba for the tennis court. In their advertising video it looks like the robot uses a beacon to localize. I’m curious to know what type of path planning they use because their video appears to show the robot driving towards specific tennis balls, rather than using a typical “lawn mover” pattern. This is a technically challenging task that requires the robot to localize itself with-respect-to the sides of the tennis court. And to optimize its ball-collecting pattern it would need some sort of overhead camera system.

Fig. 38:
The Tennibot booth.

LG Electronics

They presented 3 new prototypes in their CLOi line of service robots:
• the Porter Robot, for carrying your luggage
• the Serving Robot, to be your waiter at the Airport Lounge
• the Shopping Cart robot, for the supermarket.

They were again showing their “Hub” robot, which is designed to be a more sociable version of Amazon’s Alexa and the interface to other home automation devices.
For the home, they had their vacuum and lawn mowing robots.
And they had a personal guide robot and a large floor cleaning robot, designed for airpots.

Website: www.lgnewsroom.com/robot-portfolio/

Fig. 39:
LG Hub robot.

Fig. 40:
Three new CLOi robots.

Fig. 41:
The LG Serving Robot (left),
Shopping Cart robot (center)
& Porter Robot (right).

Fig. 42:
Serving Robot (with bow tie).

Fig. 43:
Vacuum cleaner robot.

Fig. 44:
Lawn Mower robot.

Fig. 45:
Personal guide robot.

Fig. 46:
Floor cleaner for airports.

Bosch / BSH Hausgerate GmbH

They just had a small display to advertise their lawn mowing and floor cleaning robots.

Fig. 47:
Outside the window is a
robotic lawn mower.

Fig. 48:
A gravity-defying vacuum
cleaner robot.


Fig. 49:
Floor cleaning robot.

Omron Corp. / Adept Technologies Inc.

They were demonstrating their “LD” mobile robot base.
They had it configured with two different payloads:
• with storage shelves and an interactive tablet (Fig. 50-54)
• for transporting plastic tote boxes (Fig. 55-57)
The base has upto 5 LiDAR sensors for obstacle avoidance and (presumably) localization.
Website: industrial.omron.us/products/ld-series/

Another stylish design looked like a robotic fan, but was actually another set of robot shelves (Fig. 58-59).

They also had a delta robot doing a fast picking demo, and another robot playing table tennis (ping pong).

Fig. 50:

Fig. 51:

Fig. 52:

Fig. 53:

Fig. 54:

Fig. 55:

Fig. 56:

Fig. 57:

Fig. 58:

Fig. 59:

Fig. 60:
A delta robot.

ROBORUS Co. Ltd

They were demonstrating their Concierge robot, which looks like it was designed for a coffee shop or grocery store checkout lane.
It has a screen for a face, a depth sensor (possibly the Creative BlasterX Senz3D), touch-screen, receipt printer and a credit card reader. It looks like it has a pan-tilt head, but I didn’t see that moving. You could imagine a self-service version of the Square POS (Point of Sale), but built into a robot body.

Fig. 61:

Fig. 62:
Video 5:
Demo showing a person ordering
some food using the robot.

KOTRA Silicon Valley

Jiudu (Shenzhen Dewe Technology Co. Limited)

They were showing a robotic vacuum cleaner.

Fig. 63:
The Jiudu booth.