The Rise of Service Automation via Robots

Robotics-as-a-Service, or RaaS in short, has a lower barrier to entry for companies due to the low upfront costs of other more expensive automation upgrades.

The Rise of Service Automation via Robots

Whether we like it or not, robots are here to stay - and they are fast becoming an invaluable addition to our businesses. With service and healthcare providers clamoring to keep up with the surge in the public demands due to the COVID-19 pandemic, robotics across multiple industries has been used to maintain “social distancing” and provide support to essential services. It is an industry, according to ABI Research, that is well on its way to be worth more than US$23 billion by 2021.

Low Cost, Seamlessly Integrated and Flexible

Robotics-as-a-Service, or RaaS in short, has a lower barrier to entry for companies due to the low upfront costs of other more expensive automation upgrades. It is a cloud computing unit that helps integrate robot and embedded devices onto the Web and cloud computing environment. RaaS works by working with existing robotic hardware along with cloud-based programming, allowing users to pre-program the robot according to their requirements before being able to use it.

What this means is that RaaS allows flexibility for businesses to upgrade or downgrade systems as and when a business’s requirements change. Robotics are also able to be installed without any existing infrastructure required by traditional robots, allowing seamless integration and lowered upfront costs.

How is it implemented today?

Raas offers a multitude of uses across different industries - and you might not even have been aware of it. Here’s just a few ways it has been implemented in everyday lives:

• Cleaning

Commercial and domestic cleaning has been taken over by robots both small and large. These are cost efficient and smart technologies that can be pre programmed without constant human intervention, making the process quick and easy.

• Security

Security is needed to ensure that a building complex is secure. With RaaS, automated security is now available to ensure that operation is done effectively and data essentially collected and directed back to ensure that constant improvements can be made. This also reduces expenditures on staff, where a robot could potentially be purchased to protect a facility instead of investing in multiple headcounts.

• Manufacturing and warehousing

With manufacturing experiencing a digital shift, it is no surprise that robotics has and will continue to play a big part in the operations of plants. Manufacturing robots operate at a higher level of accuracy and speeds than the average human. Business will be able to reach production and quality metrics in record time without additional expenditures on human labour.

Robotics and is future in everyday business

So how does this impact the way we run our lives and businesses in the future? Critics of automation has, for a long time, been worried about human labour slowing being made obsolete. That said, many businesses across the globe are now discussing how humans and machines can work in a shared space, thereby improving productivity and efficiency.

Human input is still necessary to make RaaS work for us, and it could still be a happy partnership between man and machine in the workforce.