Four Ways AI Will Change the Supply Chain and Service Sectors
David Wagman | April 18, 2017The use of artificial intelligence (AI) robots will grow across industries, providing new business opportunities, according to speakers at the 2017 Tech Trends Symposium, held during the HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair.
At a symposium session entitled "The New Era of Robotics Disruption," four experts discussed industry applications of AI robots and relevant business opportunities, and highlighted what they said was the importance of nurturing talent in research and development (R&D).
Norman C. Tien, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong, said the 2016 victory of AI robot AlphGo over South Korean master Lee Sedol at the "Go" board game showed that the technology has come a long way.
"Companies are all developing strategies for the robots to learn and get smarter," he said.
Tien said that robotic technology has a range of applications, from civilian drones to medical sensors and self-driving systems.
"Applications are boundless, as robotic technology can be applied in almost anything," he said. "The trend would be developing the technology that changes people's lives seamlessly like the smartphone or social media did."
Speakers included Crystal Fok, Gordon Cheng, Chia-Peng Day, and Norman Tien.For instance, when vehicles are equipped with self-driving systems, people will no longer have to learn how to drive. Smart technology used to control the flow of vehicles. It will also eliminate traffic jams in future.
Dr. Crystal Fok, technical lead (Robotics), Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp, said that smart robots will be used in multiple industries in Hong Kong in the next five years, including for tasks characterized as the "3D": Dirty, Dull, and Dangerous, including industrial laundry and construction-site welding.
"The robot is a tool. With the technologies, robots can help tackle the problems," she said. Robots will not replace humans but upgrade workers to value-added jobs, she said.
Dr. Chia-Peng Day, general manager, Foxconn Automation Technology Development Committee, said that in the long run, robotic technology can be applied to factory automation systems, particularly in the "3D" sectors, adding that the technology involves a "chained system" rather than just a robot.
Enhancing Efficiency
According to Fok, Hong Kong's logistics industry has been a pioneer in robotic technology applications, particularly in developing smart warehouses where mobile robots pick, categorize, and pack stock autonomously. She said that with the development of AI systems, it will be possible for multiple robots to work in the same warehouse to enhance production efficiency.
However, she said that the use of smart warehouses is not limited to the logistics industry, but may be extended to other industries and is expected to be an area of high profit growth. Educational entertainment is another area where R&D in robotic technology had an early start and is yielding rewards.
Gordon Cheng, Professor and Chair, Institute for Cognitive Systems, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Munich, told the conference that potential exists for robotic technology applications in such fields as edutainment, medicine, and industry. For the medical and industrial sectors, he expected the technology to become widely used as technological costs gradually decrease.
He said that the development of AI technologies should focus on enhancing the quality of life. Germany is developing different types of force cell sensors that may be applied to smart robots, and conducting experiments for medical applications to help disabled people live a full life.
Cheng also highlighted the possibility of replacing domestic helpers with smart robots, saying that Europe and the United States may be forerunners in employing the technology for this purpose given the high cost of domestic help.
Day said that China is promoting the development of robotic technology through large-scale investment and policy support, and is poised to become a leading adopter of the technology.
He also highlighted the need to nurture global talent for the field, underscoring the importance of educational investment. For Hong Kong, Fok also saw a need to nurture local R&D talent that responds to developing trends.
Tien emphasized that the city needs to build an ecosystem conducive to the development of innovation and technology. He said that the government has invested HK$18 billion ($12.1 billion) in fostering the development of innovation technology, and set up a HK$2 billion fund for investing in local tech start-ups.
The suggestion that AI will not result in job losses but instead will cause workers to be "up-skilled" is not accurate. Societies are faced with huge job losses in the future and none more so that in the logistics industry.
As one example, AI will have a profound effect in supermarkets. At present shelf-stackers operate in a haphazard and inefficient manner. They go to a storeroom at the back of the supermarket, stack a trolley with goods and then proceed to shop shelves to replenish the display-spaces. As to which shelves have to be replenished is usually determined manually because pilfering and misplacement of goods by customers means that any automated monitoring based on goods going through the checkouts is faulty.
AI takes many forms but, generally, to gain most advantage from it, it is necessary to change the way things are done. This is the case, for example, in the car industry where the construction of vehicles was altered to accommodate the needs of robots and take advantage of their lower labour costs with improved quality of outcome.
Similarly in a supermarket, the display space on a shelf is already regulated by, and data held in, software referred to as "planograms". It would therefore be possible to have set-sized cassettes in which goods are placed in the storeroom by picking robots and these cassettes then inserted into the display space on a shelf by an autonomous vehicle designed for this purpose. A further enhancement is that these cassettes could come with sensors, driven by ambient light energy, such that when their weight changes they are removed by robots, taken to the storeroom, replenished and then returned to the shelves.
This sort of technology will result in the loss of tens of thousands of casual "shelf-stacker" jobs. In a similar vein, autonomous vehicles will likely result in the removal of all truck drivers from the supply chain except for the smallest of operators. It will also result in significant efficiency-improveme nt in the utilisation of vehicles which will have a flow-on effect into the vehicle manufacturing and maintenance industries.
Within the next 20 years, these changes are going to bite and there has to be concern as to how societies will cope with these changes in employment.