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Collaborative robots (cobots)

Collaborative robots (cobots) are one of the newer trends in industrial robotics. They are designed to share the workplace with human users and are suitable for many different applications.To get more news about Robotics as a Service, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.

Cobots score high on flexibility and reconfigurability. Compared to traditional automation systems with robots, they come with relatively low initial costs.Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are modern robotic systems that are used in production or warehouse logistics, for example. They drive autonomously and can thus be used as a cost-saving and efficient transport system. They are often referred to as the ‘little brother’ of the forklift truck. They perform many tasks that are otherwise performed by humans or by equipment directly controlled by humans. AGVs are already frequently used intensively in large production plants and logistics centers, but for small and medium-sized companies they are often associated with investment costs that are too high.

Similar to the field of collaborative robots, this is changing. Modern technologies are making AGVs more attractive for SMEs in terms of their applicability, flexibility and ultimately price.
The service sector is at an inflection point with regard to productivity gains and service industrialization similar to the industrial revolution in manufacturing that started in the eighteenth century. Robotics in combination with rapidly improving technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), mobile, cloud, big data and biometrics will bring opportunities for a wide range of innovations that have the potential to dramatically change service industries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential role service robots will play in the future and to advance a research agenda for service researchers.

Findings
The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it provides a definition of service robots, describes their key attributes, contrasts their features and capabilities with those of frontline employees, and provides an understanding for which types of service tasks robots will dominate and where humans will dominate. Second, this paper examines consumer perceptions, beliefs and behaviors as related to service robots, and advances the service robot acceptance model. Third, it provides an overview of the ethical questions surrounding robot-delivered services at the individual, market and societal level.

Practical implications
This paper helps service organizations and their management, service robot innovators, programmers and developers, and policymakers better understand the implications of a ubiquitous deployment of service robots.

Originality/value
This is the first conceptual paper that systematically examines key dimensions of robot-delivered frontline service and explores how these will differ in the future.