(In English, since this is part of discourse with international students. #RobotsAlone)
My question is sincere! In 2023, we shall have a new Campus in Lillestrøm. Will our cleaning robots then be stationed in the basement and ride the lifts to the upper floors every night?
If not, they would have to have charging stations at every floor. Further more, we would need one cleaning robot per floor. Or they would need a human operator.
Robots who operate alone would depend upon lifts and doors that are themselves autonomous agents; or a central agent that can instruct the lifts and doors.
The lifts speak!
Kone have already produced lifts that communicate with maintanence. You may follow these machine conversations online. (If you are really geeky!) Online, these conversations are available in English. So, in 2023, must the cleaning robots, the lifts, and the doors speak the same machine language, or will they use natural language – like Norwegian?
Perhaps we may trust pre-defined, regular expressions in Norwegian or English that the machines themselves translate to/from a machine language.
It is a trend that we speak to (or with) devices. In 2023, we should expect that the lifts may listen. So you may choose to say «6th floor» to the lift when you enter with full hands. (Though it may be awkward if there are someone else there already.)
Human-adapted = Future proof
If the lift are adapted to our needs – and language – anyway, we could expect the cleaning robot to speak Norwegian (or English) as well. The positive part, is that it would mean that lifts and robots from different manufacturers without a shared interface could communicate over the human interface. So if all devices are adapted for us, they would be adapted for each other.
On the other hand, devices can transfer much more information, quickly and securely, by electronic means. Therefor, it is necessary to procure lifts that from 2023 (and for decades thereafter) will be able to communicate electronically with other devices – like cleaning robots. The same would be true regarding doors.
Only then would we have robots riding the lifts alone at night.
(Main picture is from http://www.adlatus.eu)