Niro Max 服務機械人 by Baidu Ai Cloud Hci Lab

Niro Max 服務機械人 by Baidu Ai Cloud Hci Lab is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award 金獎 in 機械人設計 Competition Category.

金機械人· 2020

Niro Max 服務機械人

by Baidu Ai Cloud Hci Lab

Client: Baidu

A' Design Award 金獎 Winner in 機械人 Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #100909

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Niro Max 服務機械人

Niro Max係一款專為機場設計嘅服務機械人。透過人臉識別同自然語言互動，機械人可以協助乘客辦理登機手續、退票、查詢航班資訊同其他問題。SLAM技術令Niro Max可以喺航站樓內自由移動，並且無需協助自行充電。機身後部設有儲物艙，內置除顫器同急救箱。外殼採用注塑成型嘅PC同ABS物料製造，內部框架由鋁材同鈑金構成。設計目標係提供主動式服務，同時降低人力成本。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 金獎

Niro Max 服務機械人是 A' Design Award 金獎得主，這是授予一流、絕妙而傑出設計的極為崇高的認可。金獎得主是極具創新、極富遠見且璀璨奪目的創作，反映出其設計師的天才、智慧與才幹。預計Niro Max 服務機械人將成為一項備受讚譽、引領潮流、氣勢恢宏的發明，帶來前所未有的價值。這件贏得 A' Design Award 金獎的設計是一個壯觀而受人敬重的項目，極大地造福並拓展藝術、科學、設計和技術的界限。Niro Max 服務機械人激起強烈的渴望，喚起激情，鼓勵創造力，令我們著迷。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: NIRO-Max is an airport service robot can perform face recognition and natural language interaction. The SLAM technology enables it “walk” freely and charge itself autonomously to assist passengers with check-in, ticket return, flight info, and other inquiries while patrol airports. The back box of it is equipped with an AED and first aid kit. It can reach out to more passengers in need and proactively provide services with a less businesses system labor costs and a higher operational efficiency.
Dimensions & Packaging: 530mm x 500mm x 1500mm
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Mobile, Service, Robot, Robotic
Production Technology: The shell of NIRO Max is adopted with PC and ABS injection molding, and its internal skeleton is realized with aluminum and sheet metal processes. The case is secured with buckles and screws and multiple rounds of optimization have been done to achieve rapid disassembly of it. Max presents many Baidu AI technologies including the NLP, computer vision, cloud computing, and Easy Talk. The integration of ultrasonic, infrared wave sensors and SLAM technology provides a safe guarantee for the robot.
Design Challenge: Based on our research, proper mimic of human and cute appearance can enhance users' willingness to interact: Instead of using black screen, we applied a white light-transmitting material and displayed digital expressions through projection on the robot face. After rounds of optimization in the areas of acoustic and mechanical design for its structure, the final design has no screw on the surface achieved an easy assemble and disassemble reducing the difficulty and cost of its maintenance.
Research: Quantitative and qualitative, user interview, case study
Research content: user preferences of robot appearance, human-robot interaction in public, robot height, Uncanny Valley.
Key finding: lack of interaction willingness, unfriendly experience
Solution: arms increase users' perception of it being intelligent for higher willingness to interact, and eyes bring a more human like feeling.
Taller than users will pose a pressure to users and cute appearance increases users’ willingness to interact.
Inspiration: Baidu, the world's largest Chinese search engine company, also a technology company of artificial intelligence represented by robots like Max launched in business scenarios. Max is a perfect combination of high technology and supreme user experience. In 5G eras, compared to human services, service robots can assist passengers in need accurately and flexibly to provide proactive services with a less businesses system labor costs and a higher operational efficiency.
Project Duration: The project was launched in Beijing in January 2019 and officially released at the Baidu Yunzhi Summit in September 2019.
At present, hundreds of Taiwan-level cooperation agreements have been signed in the government affairs scenes such as China Customs and Vehicle Administration, and part of the delivery has been completed. In addition, there are a lot of cooperation in negotiation in airports and shopping malls.
Operation Flow: The recessed screen helps protect user privacy. The depth camera can find the user and calculate user's distance to adjust speaker volume accordingly for better privacy. Digital facial expressions increase the humanity of interacting with the robot.
Max can move, watch, listen, think and speak like a human. It can identify the main speaker in a group conversation under noisy airport environment. When a user touches it, touch sensors can sense user touch's position and direction to give feedback.
Team Members: Fan Yang
Shiyan Li
Daiyan Liu
Hongtao Zhang
Bingkang Luo
Zhun Wu
Shiyu Wu
Yanyan Sun
Xiaowen Cheng
Yang Li
Libo Zhi
Yuhong Zhai
Fangfei Li
Mingfa Zhu
Daisong Guan