Daily Archives: April 21, 2021

Shelf-scanning robot Tally will be donning a new apron soon. Simbe, the company that makes the robot, announced its first deployment with Save Mart, the largest family owned grocery chain in California, which acquired 132 Albertsons stores in 2006 + has continued growing.

Tally robots will be rolling out to 7 stores across all three Save Mart banners in the Bay Area to bring greater visibility to inventory, streamline operations for store teams and improve the customer experience.

This is an important milestone for a sector that's been fixated on wider adoption and sees a real opportunity in the shadow of COVID-19, despite notable setbacks and some in the industry questioning the value of retail robotics late last year. In November 2020, Walmart killed a large contract with Simbe competitor Bossa Nova, which also makes a robot for inventory auditing and data-driven inventory insights.

"The pandemic has further illuminated the critical need for strong on-shelf inventory data, and no retail solution provides this data with greater accuracy and fidelity than Tally," said Brad Bogolea, CEO and Co-Founder of Simbe Robotics. "Retailers are facing an ever-evolving landscape, and Tally provides a cost-effective solution that enables them to stay ahead of the curve, with improved operations and efficiency. Through our partnership together, The Save Mart Companies will build a more resilient supply chain and ensure the best possible experience for customers and store teams across all three of the company's banners."

Tally robots autonomously audit store shelves to ensure products are in stock and in the correct location on the sales floor. The real-time data and inventory insights collected by Tally help retailers reduce out-of-stocks by up to 30% and enable store teams to focus on servicing customers. As part of the pilot program, The Save Mart Companies will deploy Tally in three Save Mart stores in the Modesto area; two Lucky California stores in Dublin and San Ramon; and two FoodMaxx locations in Modesto and Tracy.

The data that these robots collect while roving aisles at retail locations, combined with powerful analysis, is meant to increase efficiency by solving for the $1.75 trillion "ghost economy," defined by out of stocks, inaccurate price execution, and lack of product location optimization industry-wide. With up-to-date inventory information, managers using robots like Simbe's flagship Tally robot can enact faster operational decisions at the store level and more nimble inventory management. The problem of poor stock management is so pervasive thatinventory mishaps account for more lost revenue than theft.

A study conducted last year by a leading management consulting firm found that Tally has reduced out-of-stocks by 20%, ensuring customers find the items they're looking for and freeing up time for store employees to prioritize other tasks like assisting customers.

But effective technology doesn't always find its market, which is why partnerships are key right now and why pilots like the one with Save Mart is key to build necessary momentum as retailers embrace automation anew.

"Deepening our commitment to innovation with this pilot program is a reflection of The Save Mart Companies promise to our customers to ensure the best in-store experiences," said Hal Levitt, SVP of retail operations at The Save Mart Companies. "We're pleased to have a strong technology partner in Simbe to support us in testing a new, effective inventory management solution in our stores and allowing us to provide better product availability."

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Retail robots coming to these grocery stores - ZDNet

After a year without a new game challenge, any announcements from FIRST Robotics -- the international youth robotics organization -- or much hope, a homegrown tournament led by other area coaches came together and was recently held at the Sanford Center.

The first-ever Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference invitational event was put together for the robotics teams of the region who otherwise would have gone without a competition season. It also seemed to be one of the first in-person robotics tournaments in the country since COVID hit. Typically, the event is called the championship event and takes place in October, but was canceled due to the pandemic. The Bemidji tournament was unsanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League or FIRST Robotics.

The RoboJacks robot competes on Saturday, April 17, 2021, at the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference at the Sanford Center. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

According to the RoboJacks website, To our knowledge, this is only the second competition in the world and the first in the United States since the pandemic shut down so many things. As such, the team is excited to be part of this unique opportunity.

The tournament held, Saturday, April 17, featured 24 teams from around the area -- with some familiar faces from around the area including two teams from Cass Lake-Bena, a team from Kelliher and one from Nevis. The RoboJacks ended the competition in the quarter-final round, after four rounds of qualifying matches. The Backwoods Bots from Bigfork, Minn. won the overall competition.

Prior to this, the Pioneer caught up with the RoboJacks in the industrial technology room at BHS, as they tinkered with their robot.

On Thursday, April 15, the build team was hard at work making modifications to their robot at Bemidji High School.

Another corner of the room held programmers, gathered around a computer. In the other wing, the business team discussed fundraising strategies.

The RoboJacks prepare their robot for the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference after school on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

The RoboJacks are down some members of the team this year, as COVID-19 put a stop to regular competition. This led some regular members to opt not to return for the season, and made it difficult for the team to recruit freshmen members.

The team this year has 17 members -- which are broken down into subteams -- programming, build and business. Some of the larger subteams were further split into smaller groups for contact tracing purposes, so if someone in the group were to get sick, the whole team wouldnt be down for the count.

Typically, volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team. For example, an engineer might help out the build team, a marketing professional might guide the business team, but these relationships were harder to cultivate during the pandemic.

If there's one thing I wish we had more of, its more mentors, RoboJacks Coach Kirk Anderson said. He added that if any professionals in the area would like to help out as mentors for the robotics team in the future, to get in touch via the RoboJacks website.

We are quite excited about the possibility of having any type of competition this year, Anderson said, ahead of the competition. He is new to the head coach position this year, taking over for former robotics coach Chris Conway.

Build team member Abigail Termont said the event was always a possibility, so the team had been preparing, but that they initially had low expectations.

As initial information was going out, it was, we're planning for this, but don't get your hopes up too far. So (the plan has) kind of always been there and it's only gotten more detailed, she said. We're gonna try to make sure we do this and to keep it as safe as possible.

RoboJacks coach Kirk Anderson looks on as students work on their robot on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

Abigail Johnson, business team lead, said the groups were meeting in some capacity while the school was in distance learning or hybrid, planning for the possibility of competing.

We were doing mostly Google Meets (meetings), just trying to come up with a plan. I know build team members were like measuring parts at home. And the business team mostly worked on outreach, trying to figure out where sponsors were with this year, Johnson said.

In a typical year, the FIRST Robotics would release a game or challenge early in the year, giving teams time to build a robot to compete for the upcoming competition season. As there was no official season this year, there was no new challenge. This meant teams were competing with their 2019-2020 robots, giving them much more time than usual to work the kinks out.

Termont said the group was making some modifications to the way the robot shoots out foam balls and the robots extendable hanging arm.

The lack of in-person events also made fundraising for the team more difficult.

When (the conference championship) is local, it's also a good chance for local businesses and organizations to check out. Since they are the ones who are spending money on the team it's a good chance to see in person what's going on with it, Anderson said.

The local competition event was the culmination of a labor of love -- local teams even built the game pieces used on the field.

The RoboJacks control their robot on April 17, 2021, at the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference at the Sanford Center in Bemidji. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

The main movers and shakers of getting the event going have been Jesse Frost and Matt Wendlund from Cass Lake-Bena High School, Anderson said ahead of the event. There have been several other area coaches that have also put hours of work into making this happen.

Frost currently serves as the President of the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference.

This years game was called Infinite Recharge and had a Star Wars theme. Robots in alliances could earn points by throwing balls into various goals and hanging off of a balancing rail.

If youve never been to a robotics competition before, expect the following: colorful lights, festive team outfits, a glowing game field, students wheeling around large robots and flying balls.

This homegrown competition was no different. Though there were a few technical snags and snafus, overall the event carried on smoothly.

On April 17, the Sanford Center was once again filled with lights, student innovation, and almost certainly smiles. The face masks did little to muffle the long-held cheers.

Bemidji senior Dylan Thomas, head programmer for the RoboJacks, works on their robot after school on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at Bemidji High School. (Jillian Gandsey / Bemidji Pioneer)

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Bemidji area robotics teams compete for the first time in a year - Bemidji Pioneer

Asia-Pacificcontinues to dominate the global industrial robotics market, and revenues are estimated to top $25.08 billion by 2024, with China, Japan and South Korea driving progress. The European region is the second most important, propelled by the automotive industry and Germanythe fifth-largest country globally for industrial robotics. North America's ongoing trend of production automation and keeping all manufacturing operations in-house puts it in the third position, with forecasted revenues of $6.19 billion by 2024.

For further information on this analysis, Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics MarketOpportunities Forecast,please visit: http://frost.ly/5m6

"The global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a strong use case for industrial robots, which helped assure business continuity," said Nandini Natarajan, Industry Analyst, Frost & Sullivan. "While 2020 witnessed reduced investments in robotics, the demand for industrial robots will rise sharply from 2021 on. The introduction of low-cost robots and innovative business models such as Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) are expected to drive demand from small and medium enterprises (SMEs)."

Natarajan added: "Collaborative robots (cobots) are experiencing rapid market growth thanks to their utility, ease of installation, and consistently decreasing price, making them an affordable and viable solution for a wide range of applications. It will be the fastest-growing segment by 2024, recording a CAGR of 32.8% (2019-2024) and reaching $1.78 million in global revenues. Advances in 5G and edge computing will be instrumental in equipping cobots with improved flexibility and easier implementation."

For further opportunities, market participants should explore these strategic recommendations:

Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics MarketOpportunities Forecastis part of Frost & Sullivan's global Industrial Automation https://ww2.frost.com/research/industry/information-communications-technologies/Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success.Contact us: Start the discussion.

Cobots Transforming the Global Industrial Robotics MarketOpportunities ForecastK518-10

Contact:Francesca ValenteGlobal Corporate Communications E: [emailprotected]http://ww2.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

http://www.frost.com

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Cobots Lead the Future of the Global Industrial Robotics Market, Finds Frost & Sullivan - PRNewswire

Around the world, grading, sorting, and assembling of fresh fruits and vegetables is done predominantly manually. It would save companies a lot of time and costs if these time-consuming, dull, and repetitive tasks were carried out by robots, says Aneesh Chauhan, expertise leader of the Computer Vision and Robotics group at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research and member of its Agro Food Robotics team. And it would be even more efficient if one robot could perform multiple tasks.

Teachable robotsWageningen Agro Food Robotics began in 2019, the project, Autonomous Robots for Agrifood Processes. One of the aims of this four-year venture is the development of intelligent robots that can be taught to perform multiple tasks, from picking and sorting different types of fruits and vegetables to separating samples of the same type, based on size, shape, and other characteristics. Outsourcing tasks to such robots will allow fruit and vegetable processors to improve their cost/profit balance.

Human-activity recognitionThe Wageningen robots are equipped with cameras that capture the motions of a human expert performing picking and sorting tasks. Human-activity recognition includes data on the person, the scene and the object handled, Chauhan explains. Inbuilt computer vision and deep learning functionalities enable the robots to capture this information and learn new tasks from human demonstrations. Successful experiments have been carried out for different use cases, including picking and sorting mandarins of variable sizes, separating ripe from unripe bananas, sorting intact and damaged cucumbers, and separating out different types from a table of mixed fruits.

Global firstThe first demo application will be ready in Summer 2021, a global first in agri-food applications. An innovation like this requires the technical expertise of robotics and machine learning technologies, as well as extensive knowledge of product physiology and food processing. Here in Wageningen, these disciplines work closely together, Chauhan explains.

The next step will be to test the robots in a factory or a pilot plant and to make them even smarter, with more advanced sensors for sweetness, juiciness, and firmness of fruits and vegetables. Chauhan is already thinking beyond this aim: If people could see robots as co-workers, apprentices even, who knows how the future might look.

"A robot processing oranges could, for example, move easily on to processing strawberries, sorting them by sweetness and marking the sweeter ones with a premium price. Consumer confidence would benefit from the assurance that the products are never touched by human hands a clear USP in these pandemic times," says Aneesh Chauhan, expertise leader of the Computer Vision and Robotics group at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research and member of its Agro Food Robotics team.

For more information:Wageningen University & Researchwww.wur.nl

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Intelligent robots increase the benefit from fresh produce - hortidaily.com - hortidaily.com

SoftBank Robotics, SB Logistics Corp. and Berkshire Grey are partnering to offer an advanced third-party logistics service for e-commerce fulfillment. Berkshire Greys robotic pick and pack systems will enable SB Logistics to process customer orders by robotically handling thousands of SKUS in different product categories.

Berkshire Greys RPP systems are capable of handling significantly higher volumes of SKUs than other robotic providers can handle, while offering levels of careful handling and precise placement that is unmatched in the industry. We challenged Berkshire Grey to increase their capabilities even further to best meet the very high expectations of customers in our target markets. Berkshire Grey met that challenge and developed advanced functionality to enable the most innovative solutions in warehouse robotics, says Fumihide Tomizawa, President and CEO, SoftBank Robotics and SB Logistics. With Berkshire Greys RPP systems, we will be able to directly improve the productivity, quality and reliability of our fulfillment services.

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SoftBank Robotics and SB Logistics Partner with Berkshire Grey to Develop New E-Commerce Fulfillment Operations - Supply and Demand Chain Executive

MARIETTA, OH Officials with Washington State Community College and the Career Center held an open house yesterday promoting their new robotics and advanced manufacturing pathway. They've formed a partnership to create a pipeline that aims to start high school students on a pathway that ends with them getting a high paid, in-demand job, likely in this area.

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George Bilokonsky is Washington State Community College's Dean of Engineering. He said they've had a robotics program for a while now. "This is automated manufacturing. We've done robotics, but we hadn't done the integrated piece where we're having several robotics working together, talking together. This is smart manufacturing."

High school students from around the county came to the open house yesterday with their parents to look at their robotics automation engineering program. WSCC and Career Center officials walked these students through their state-of-the-art labs and demonstrated how they could earn both high school, college credit, and receive industry credentials by working with robots.

They had four separate robots set up assembly-line style to machine a plain square of aluminum into a fancy-looking decorative plaque with a watch face set in. One robot even packaged it delicately into a small box. The first robot on the assembly line is the FANUC robodrill, and it actually has to be registered with The Department of Homeland Security. "This machine is so precise that homeland security requires it to be registered so they know where it's at in case weapons show up." Bilokonsky explained this machine has the precision required to make silencers or other components of guns or other weapons. "They know exactly the longitude and latitude points are of this machine."

Bilokonsky explained that the robot assembly line was to demonstrate where the industry is headed. "We've spent a lot of time talking to companies around here who are saying hey, we want to get there, we don't know how to get there. So we're training the personnel for companies in this area." He says the easy part is buying the robotics, but trying to get people to operate and maintain them is another thing altogether.

Amanda Herb is the Vice President of Institutional Advancement with Washington County. She said the catalyst for this advanced manufacturing pathway was the million-dollar robotics they displayed at the open house. There had been a discussion about a robotics program at the Career Center. "Instead of them trying to duplicate the equipment we had, we suggested that we partner and their students could come to our campus and use the equipment for their hands-on training." This isn't just a partnership for equipment use, but also a partnership in terms of what kinds of courses they can offer their students.

While the idea is of course to get students into this program, Bilokonsky said adults are calling him asking how they can get involved. "So they're working for a company that has robots. They want to learn how to program robots." He invites them to come down and enroll in one of his classes. "We're probably going to have some evening classes, some workshops. We are going to train the adults, we do want the adults to participate." He said they want to help the up-and-coming workers in the industry, as well as those already there.

Herb said this is a win-win for WSCC, the Career Center, and the students. "It gives us the opportunity to expose more students to the in-demand careers of robotics and advanced manufacturing." She said things like this really is the mission of Washington State. "To provide these hands-on opportunities for students. To really open up doors to new career possibilities." She believes students should be exposed to a wider range of career opportunities than they are now. "This partnership with the Career Center gives us the ability to introduce students to a career that they may have never thought of before."

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WSCC Partners With The Career Center For Robotics Program - Patch.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dover Air Force Base (Dover AFB) and Kodiak Robotics, Inc. today announced that Kodiak has been awarded an AFWERX Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop autonomous vehicles for the Dover AFB flightline.

Flightline vehicles represent a natural fit for autonomous technology, given the structured driving environment and high demand for drivers. Through this SBIR Phase II, Kodiak and Dover AFB will also partner to identify the flightline vehicles best suited to automation. This SBIR grant demonstrates the Air Force's growing interest in automation technology's potential to increase efficiency and safety.

The Air Force's SBIR program, which is administered by AFWERX, is designed to help startups and small businesses adapt their civilian technology for Air Force use. Through this SBIR Phase II grant, Kodiak will partner with Dover AFB to adapt Kodiak's solution to the needs of flightline vehicles, and validate the software in simulation. At the completion of the SBIR project, Kodiak will be eligible for a SBIR Phase III grant that will fund autonomous flightline vehicle deployment.

"Kodiak's SBIR partnership with Dover AFB shows the flexibility of the Kodiak Driver to adapt to a wide range of deployment environments and customers," said Don Burnette, Kodiak's CEO. "We are excited to partner with the 436th Aerial Port Squadron to bring the benefits of autonomous technology to the flightline."

About Kodiak Robotics, Inc.:

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in April 2018 to develop autonomous technology that carries freight forwardso people, partners, and the planet thrive. Kodiak is building and operating self-driving trucks designed to operate on highway routes, making the freight industry safer and more efficient. Kodiak has developed the industry's most advanced technology stack purpose-built specifically for long-haul trucks. Kodiak delivers freight daily for its customers between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, operating autonomously on the highway portion of the route. In January 2021, Kodiak became the first company in the autonomous trucking industry to announce disengage-free customer deliveries, and released footage of over 1000 miles of disengage-free driving. Learn more about Kodiak on the web at kodiak.ai, and on Medium, LinkedIn and Twitter.

SOURCE Kodiak Robotics

https://kodiak.ai/

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Kodiak Robotics And Dover Air Force Base Partner To Develop Autonomous Flightline Vehicles - PRNewswire

Ocado is investing 10 million in Oxford-based start-up Oxbotica, which develops autonomy software for vehicles.

Online retailer Ocado is exploring the possibility of having robots packing, transporting and delivering groceries all the way to customers' kitchens, with a new partnership designed to bring new levels of automation to the warehouse.

The British e-tailer is investing 10 million ($14 million) in Oxford-based start-up Oxbotica, which develops autonomy software for vehicles, with the objective of testing different ways of integrating the technology with Ocado's hardware. Ocado will take a seat on Oxobtica's board.

Among the projects envisioned by the two firms are autonomous vehicles travelling inside Ocado's warehouses to move orders around the buildings and surrounding yard areas, but also driverless delivery vans and even "kerb-to-kitchen" robots to facilitate what is known as last-mile logistics the final steps between a customer's doorstep and the vehicle carrying their order.

SEE: Building the bionic brain (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Automating these processes could cut costs significantly. According to Ocado, logistics costs weigh heavily in the expense hierarchy of online grocery: the cost of final mile delivery alone represents 10% of sales, with labor constituting about half of the costs.

Ocado and Oxbotica had previously worked together in 2017, when the e-tailer conducted a two-week trialusing an early prototype vehicle doing autonomous deliveriesin London. Oxbotica has now further developed two core products that will be used by Ocado's team a software suite that enables vehicle autonomy, as well as a cloud-based autonomy management system to monitor and control fleets.

A dedicated team of engineers within Ocado's Advanced Technology division will work with Oxbotica to come up with new use cases for the technology.

Ocado is keen to demonstrate that the nature of its business is not limited to online retail; rather, the company speaks of itself as a "technology company". Although the e-tailer's main activity still consists of providing online grocery services, mostly for UK retailer Marks & Spencer, Ocado is also heavily investing in robotics, AI, machine learning and edge intelligence.

This has led to the development of the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP), which includes end-to-end software systems to operate online retail businesses, from running an e-commerce website to managing the routing of delivery vans.

Perhaps the most well-known part of OSP is warehouse management, which Ocado developed in the form of huge hive-like buildings where groceries are stored in crates, over which dishwasher-sized robots coordinate to pick and mix goods for customer orders.

OSP is sold to retail businesses like Marks & Spencer, and the platform is the reason why Ocado describes itself as a technology provider. As a result, the company has focused primarily on improving OSP services; at the end of last year, for example,Ocado bought Kindred Systems, which designs AI-powered systems for warehouses, as well as robotic arm designer Haddington Dynamics.

The new partnership with Oxbotica is yet another signal from Ocado that it is willing to bring OSP's capabilities one step further.

"We are excited about the opportunity to work with Oxbotica to develop a wide range of autonomous solutions that truly have the potential to transform both our and our partners' customer fulfillment centers and service delivery operations, while also giving all end customers the widest range of options and flexibility," said Alex Harvey, chief of advanced technology at Ocado.

Due to the regulatory landscape, Ocado expects that the development of vehicles that operate in restricted areas such as inside fulfillment centers will become a reality sooner than fully autonomous deliveries to consumers' homes. The first prototypes of some early use cases are expected to be ready within two years.

With a workforce now approaching 19,000 employees, Ocado maintained that the vehicle autonomy program will not have any impact on the company's current hiring or employment levels within logistics and operations groups.

SEE: What is Agile software development? Everything you need to know about delivering better code, faster

Ocado will now have to prove that the company's extensive investments in new technologies are reflected in profit margins. Now more than two decades in the making,the e-tailer is yet to report significant profits. The past year, marked by a rise in online sales that came as a result of the global health crisis, seems to have benefitted Ocado, whichsaw revenues increase by about a third to hit 2.3 billion($3.2 billion); but the jump was largely driven by retail revenue, with earnings from technology services yet to match the company's more traditional offerings.

Ocado is also competing in a fast-evolving market, with autonomous delivery systemsprojected to grow at over 24% to more than $84 billion globally in 2031. Giant e-tailers like Amazon are aggressively expanding their capabilities, and havelast-mile delivery robots already operatingin some cities; and small start-ups are also popping up to automate delivery processes.

Even more traditional companies like Ford are getting involved in the space: the automaker recently announced that it waspurchasing a two-legged, two-armed robotproduced by Agility Robotics, to carry parcels from delivery vehicles straight up to customers' doors.

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This online grocery company wants its robots to deliver right into your kitchen - ZDNet

SINGAPORE: Earlier this year, Luda Lee, an AI (artificial intelligence)-powered chatbot, went rogue.

Created by Korean start-up Scatter Lab, Luda was designed to chat naturally with South Korean Facebook users (attracting more than 750,000 over just 20 days), and to improve based on user data.

Soon after however, Luda Lee began making bigoted and offensive comments against women, minorities, foreigners and people with disabilities.

She even randomly shared the personal data of its users. Her creators apologised but now face lawsuits over the data leaks.

While some consider this a relatively innocuous example, there are cases where more serious harms were caused by AI-made decisions.

In one high-profile example in 2018, a pedestrian was hit and killed by a self-driving Uber car whose sensors had failed to see and avoid her.

Concerns over algorithmic high-frequency trading triggering widespread financial market crashes, such as the flash crash of 2010, have also been raised.

These come as Singapore is ramping up its use of AI in all areas of life. In November 2019, the Government announced its National AI Strategy, which spells out plans to deepen Singapores use of AI to transform our economy and society.

Just this year, commuters could begin taking driverless buses at the Singapore Science Park and on Jurong Island, while on-demand delivery robots are being trialled in Punggol. Even robot dogs have been patrolling Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park to ensure safe distancing among park-goers.

While extensive pre-trials would have been conducted, alongside safety precautions taken during their roll-out, Moores Law dictates that we ask: In the unlikely event that serious harms, whether physical, emotional or financial occur, on whom (or what) does legal blame lie, and on what basis?

FINDING THE SMOKING GUN

These questions were the focus of a recent law reform report published by the Singapore Academy of Laws Law Reform Committee, as part of a series looking at the impact of robotics and AI on the law.

As this report notes, these questions sometimes have relatively straightforward answers. For instance, if a malicious individual deliberately programmes a delivery robot to break into someones house, or disrupts the signals to a driverless bus, causing it to veer off the road and crash, most would agree that individual should be held liable.

In addition, if somebody sustains serious injury or dies from the individuals deliberate actions, some form of criminal punishment would not seem unfair. Indeed, criminal laws already exist to deal with such issues.

Save for some tweaks, present laws could still tackle cases of intentional harm, even in an AI-powered world.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NO HUMAN INTENDED THE HARM?

Things get trickier, however, in situations where a human did not intend the harm that arose. This is particularly so as AI systems become more autonomous, and humans roles in their operation and supervision diminish.

Already, driverless vehicles present such a conundrum today, given that they operate at speeds that may not leave users time to take control and prevent the harm. What then?

An instinctive response might be to say the entities responsible for the system should be punished. But which entities? There are usually multiple parties involved in the development and deployment of AI systems.

Should the liable party be the one that built the system; programmed the systems code; trained the system; put it on the market, or deployed the system?

Putting aside challenges of identifying harmful intent, it can be tricky to pinpoint the blameworthy party in this chain. Pinning criminal liability on all of them would also likely have a counterproductive effect of discouraging innovation the legal equivalent of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

This same challenge besets the use of criminal negligence laws in situations where an offender (an individual or company) carelessly causes harm, even though no harm was intended.

Does this mean that serious harms could be inflicted by robots and AI systems, with no one being held criminally liable?

Some take this view, preferring the use of regulatory penalties such as censures, improvement notices and fines to promote the safe and responsible use of AI systems. The argument goes that threatening criminal liability on those who create AI systems for harms they didnt foresee deters the development of new, potentially game-changing technologies.

Others counter some cases of harm are so serious that criminal laws are needed to ensure that someone or something is held accountable for the damage done, to reflect societys abhorrence at such harmful conduct and to set a strong deterrent.

These questions and trade-offs are matters that policymakers and society need to deeply consider.

WEIGHING THE ALTERNATIVES

One possible approach could be to impose specific duties on designated entities to take all reasonable measures necessary, to ensure the AI systems safety.

These entities would risk criminal penalties if they fail, much as worksite operators are required to ensure the safety of workers on those sites.

Another more radical solution could be to impose criminal liability on and punish the AI system itself, particularly with highly-advanced autonomous systems. After all, is it not the system that took the decision to act in a harmful way?

This approach is not unheard of: The European Parliament has suggested it be considered further, and even Saudi Arabia has recognised the robot Sophia as the worlds first robot citizen just a few years ago.

However, such a solution does appear impractical in todays legal systems, which are shaped primarily to regulate human behaviour, as well as at the present state of technology. After all, what purpose would it serve today if a driverless bus in Jurong Island or a delivery robot in Punggol were charged, convicted and sentenced to prison, fined, or even put to death?

But as AI systems become more and more sophisticated, these questions are no longer the preserve of science fiction.

A silver bullet or one-size-fits-all solution is unlikely. Different technologies and different contexts will likely require different approaches to whether, how and against whom to apply criminal law.

Policy and ethical balances will need to be struck. Whether from a legal, policy or broader societal perspective, these are not issues for tomorrow but today.

Josh Lee Kok Thong is a member of the Singapore Academy of Laws Law Reform Committees Subcommittee on Robotics and AI. He is also the co-founder of LawTech.Asia and the founding chairperson of the Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association. Simon Constantine was formerly Deputy Research Director, Law Reform at the SAL.

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Commentary: Self-driving buses and delivery robots welcomed but who do we blame if AI goes rogue in Singapore? - CNA