TECHNOLOGY, AI & ROBOTICS
WHAT HAPPENSWHEN THE TECH GOES WRONG?
Security glitches, cleaning inefficiencies, vacuum robots that go rogue - Lee Radzki from Tork manufacturer Essity, looks at the issues that problematical cleaning tech can cause and considers how manufacturers are striving to resolve them.
A successful hacking attempt on a series of domestic cleaning robots recently caused alarm in US households.
People were relaxing in their homes when their robot vacuum cleaners suddenly appeared to go rogue.
Some of the machines uttered random obscenities or racial slurs, while one robot in Los Angeles started to chase the family dog around the house. It emerged that criminals had hacked into various robot vacuums in multiple US states and had taken control of these machines.
Security flaws including a Bluetooth connector glitch that allowed third parties to access the machine from more than 100 metres away were later identified with the model in question.
A pet dog was also the unfortunate victim of another recent robot vacuum cleaner failure, this time in China. The machine was doing its rounds when it inadvertently sucked up the tail of the family dog.
Camera footage shows the device latching on to the tail and refusing to let go while the pet ran around in circles in a bid to free itself.
Both these incidents highlight the issues that can occur when cleaning technology goes wrong. Other incidents have been reported on social media in recent years. One post tells of a robot vacuum that negotiated its way through a pet’s faeces before spreading it around the floor as it ‘cleaned’. Other videos show automated machines becoming stuck in corners or under chairs.
Another robot vacuum cleaner hit the headlines when it escaped from a Cambridge Travelodge a few years ago. The device had failed to turn back when reaching the building’s threshold and had left the premises, only to be found the following day under a nearby hedge.
Security is an ongoing concern with many connected high- tech solutions, particularly since robots use cameras to map out their immediate environment. This information could provide footage that would be highly useful to criminals. Anyone hacking into the system of, say, a bank or a large corporate office could access details of an organisation’s banking processes, for example, or indicate the arrival times of security vans.
Technology companies are striving to tackle the problems as they arise and are fine-tuning their machines to prevent future issues. For example, an increasing number of robot cleaning machine manufacturers now encrypt the
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data generated by their connected systems and providing security patches to counteract emerging vulnerabilities.
They are also pixelating images taken by cleaning robots’ 3D cameras to provide an extra level of security for customers. And they are configuring the machines to avoid the need for a continuous internet connection or links to a WLAN network which means that no data needs to be stored.
Other glitches have been observed in robots, particularly with earlier models. In 2015, hoteliers in Japan made the bold move of staffing a property almost entirely with robots. ‘Employees’ at the Henn-na Hotel hotel in Nagasaki were tasked with carrying out vacuuming, portering and reception duties. The hotel gained recognition from Guinness World Records for being the world's first hotel staffed by working robots.
However, robot cleaners and porters would frequently create logjams when they became stuck in corridors when trying to pass each other. The animatronic receptionists were unable to photocopy guests’ passports which meant humans were frequently being obliged to step in to carry out such tasks.
And while every guest room was provided with a personal robot concierge, these would interpret the sound of snoring as verbal commands. They would then wake the guests at regular intervals throughout the night to ask them what they wanted.
In 2019 it was announced that the hotel had 'sacked' half its robot workforce and had drafted in humans to provide a more reliable and efficient experience.
However, robots are still proving highly effective at the hotel in concierge and luggage-handling roles while the property is gaining an international reputation for combining futuristic technology with comfort in an eccentric theme park-like setting. In fact, the concept has become so successful that there are now Henn-na Hotels in more than 20 locations in Japan as well as one in New York City.
In the cleaning sector, robots can be an enormous help since they are able to shoulder the burden of repetitive, strenuous tasks such as cleaning large floor areas. They also free up humans to take care of the more detailed work and they are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with many now being capable of distinguishing between various objects and floor types.
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