Who goes into robotics nowadays, and how prepared are they for today’s challenges? How well prepared are our universities for training specialists? What’s the survival rate for robotics startups?
Chelyabinsky Obzor talked about all this and more with Albert Yefimov, head of the Skolkovo Foundation’s Robocentre. What follows is an English translation of the interview.
What’s the most promising area of development in robotics right now?
The problem of getting the robot to move from point A to point B has already been solved. There’s no point in doing something to simply get it to move from A to B. That task has already been solved by everyone repeatedly: on wheels, on feet – it doesn’t matter. The question is always what the robot will do when it gets to point B. Why did it go there in the first place and what does it need to do there? This is the most important question in robotics, and hardly anyone has the answer.
What does this mean? It means the intellectualization of technology. The robot has to understand why it has gone there, what it is going to do there, what it plans to do there without human input. Because robots that can do that with human input already exist. But genuine artificial intelligence still needs to solve that task.
The second unsolved task is how the robot will manipulate the surrounding objects once it arrives at point B. What should it do with these objects, how will it pick them up? Currently, a simple operation like taking a smartphone out of a pocket is beyond a robot’s capabilities. Not just because it doesn’t know what a smartphone is or what a pocket is – it can’t get in there anyway because its fingers completely lack sensitivity – that’s the second unsolved task.
What tasks can be solved in the industrial sector?
Robotics, like any technology, should solve the tasks currently facing mankind: coping with the rapid aging of the population, increasing international competitive capacity, increasing workforce productivity on a global scale. These tasks are on the agenda, along with tackling global warming, water shortages, dwindling energy resources and so on. And everything that solves these tasks from a technological point of view is useful. The same goes for robotics. It can help to solve demographic problems such as the care of elderly people.
It can also solve energy issues, such as monitoring infrastructure that we can’t replace but requires constant observation to make sure nothing happens to it. It helps to increase workforce productivity, because in theory, if you replace all the people in factories with robots, productivity could improve. But if they are replaced with robots that work together with people and that possess a significant level of artificial intelligence, then productivity will not just improve a lot – the improvement will be so dramatic that it could really change the entire setup of global industry.
Who goes into robotics nowadays, and how prepared are they for today’s challenges?
To start with, Russia is a country not of robots – we are next to last in terms of the level of industrial robotisation – but of roboteers: we have the highest level of robotics engineers. The country produces 1,000 degree-level robotics specialists every year, and they disappear into the void. Our task at Skolkovo, and, I hope, the task of our partners, is to facilitate a system whereby these guys don’t just go into industry, writing code, but set up their own startups focused on the growing markets that are appearing today.
How well prepared are our universities for training specialists?
Unfortunately, I have to say they are totally unprepared, because the spirit of entrepreneurship in universities, with a few exceptions, is completely lacking, and this is the key point for entering new markets. Universities should motivate their students and post-graduates to not just devote themselves to science, but also to study applied research and the commercialization of that research. Only young specialists can do that. I agree with the saying that a scientist cannot be a salesman – that’s absolutely right. But not all university graduates become scientists. And those who know how to do business should go into hi-tech businesses.
What’s the survival rate for robotics startups?
It’s about the same as within Skolkovo as a whole. We lose about 10 percent of our companies a year, for various reasons, and that’s normal. But on a growing market – and robotics is a growing market – it doesn’t matter, because we get far more startups coming to us than we lose every year.
Tell us about a few examples of promising startups.
The main example we’re telling people about right now is ExoAtlet. Because if anyone in Russia is going to create a device that enables people to get up out of a wheelchair, it’s going to be Skolkovo, it’s going to be ExoAtlet.
Another very interesting field is service robotics, for example Promobot, which makes 100 service robots every year, and plans to double that number in 2016. The robots help businesses to promote their goods and services, which is a very important task. These robots account for 10 percent of the overall Russian robotics market.
What does Skolkovo do for robotics? Are there any upcoming priority events?
We will hold our Skolkovo Robotics conference on May 20, with about 1,500 participants from all over the world – and, of course, tons of robots. If you want to learn about robotics, join us on May 20.
As to what Skolkovo does for robotics, there are two things. The first is that we enable robotics companies to make a prototype, which then enables them to find an investor and sell their product. For those who have already made a prototype and are already selling their product, we provide the opportunities to make relevant contacts and expand their business. Expanding the business is the main function. We are a centre for the development and commercialization of new technologies – that’s what we are called.
The original article published in Russian by Chelyabinsky Obzor can be found here.