Robots have been around us for a long time now and as time passes, they keep getting better and smarter. They can be programmed to learn and adapt according to their usage . There are many types of robots for example, Pre-Programmed robots that follow one particular thing that they are programmed to do like a mechanical arm in a factory, Humanoid Robots that tend to be able to do the tasks that a normal human can do like jumping running etc. Autonomous Robots are those that once set up , do not require any further help to function example an automatic lawn mower.
What is an Assistant Robot?
An assistant robot is basically a helper that make tasks a little or sometimes a lot easier for people to perform. These robots can help people in many ways depending on what they are programmed to do. We have assistant robots that look just like humans and they will even be able to respond to them when they are asked a question and give direction to people who are confused in places like airports. Other type of assistant robots are basically voice commanded Digital home assistants like Alexa or google Home that can do things like play music, make notes, set reminders, tell jokes and even control the lights in your room.
We even have surgical robots that are still under development by many companies which will be able to perform surgeries on human beings. These need to be very accurate because if they do any error, they may even be responsible for somebodies death. All these robots come under assistant robots or they're also called as service bots. Some examples of these assistant robots are :
Are Assistant Robots Replacing humans?
The age old question, "will AI take over?" seemed like a joke when at first , but now we see robots replacing humans in many jobs as they don't get tired. For example a drone is now being used to film many movie scenes which were earlier shot by a man in a helicopter. Just like the saying '2 birds, one stone' the drone took the jobs of a pilot and a camera man. Now a days we even have home deliveries being done by drones which replaced delivery boys. Similarly we have automatic dishwashers, vacuum cleaners that have replaced many workers.
This is the reason why some people are upset about development of AI and assistant robots. We even have automatic trains and cars that do not require a driver. Along with the benefits of the Robots, there are a lot of disadvantages as well.
Are we becoming too much dependent on these Assistant Robots?
Helping to make a task easy is a different thing, but some robots that do a little too much for a task as simple as turning of the lights should not really be encouraged. People will start to get lazy and in case of the robots failure, would not know what to do. There was a movie by Disney called Wall-E that showed us what would happen if we got too much dependent on these robots. It showed how lazy humans would get if they were fully dependent on robots.
Currently the robots industry is still in the growing stage and I think that most people still can't afford a personal Assistant Robot yet. But when these robots become as common as having a cell phone, that's where the problem might begin. We are already dependent on our cellphones and getting robots could be worse. Not to mention the privacy policy of the companies that make these robots would have to ensure that they do not use these robots to keep an eye on the people.
There are many conspiracies going around about Digital Home assistant that they were made to monitor each and every person using them. The companies would have every single detail about the user from where he/she lives to what they do everyday and might even listen to every conversation they have. People usually tend to see the Advertisement of stuff they were only talking about on their phones which raises the question even more.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, we have not yet developed enough to have these assistant and will have to deal with them when they become more common. Till then these robots are still helpful and will continue to get more advanced and smarter as time passes by.