The latest support robot of the Mountain View Library



[ad_1]

Click here if you're having trouble viewing the slideshow on a mobile device.

MOUNTAIN VIEW – A robot will only run your library books for you in Silicon Valley.

Residents of downtown Mountain View had a first glimpse into the future with the launch of BookBot, the library's newest non-human assistant. Creating Google Area 120, an experimental division of technology pioneer, the robot is the company's first personal delivery robot to go out on the streets and start interacting with the public, said Christian Bersch, head of the company. 39, project team.

This is part of a program to test the possibilities of autonomous and electric robots, he said.

"At the moment, we just want to know how it would work, how it worked and what kinds of problems we would have encountered," he said. "It's still an active development."

Charlotte Ito, age 6, right, closes the lid of the Bot book outside the Mountain View Library in Mountain View, California on Thursday, March 7, 2019. The book-picking device makes home calls to pick up books library and send them back. at the Mountain View Library. (Randy Vazquez / Bay Area Press Group)

The pilot will run for nine months, followed by a human manipulator behind the BookBot for the first six months, he said. It's just to make sure everything works as expected, get it out of trouble as needed and watch how people react. After that, a human will sit at a distance behind the controls.

And, last Thursday, the response was extremely positive. The children shouted at the sight of the robot and immediately jumped in his way to see if he was going to stop. (That's the case.) The adults took out their photos to take pictures or videos and gawk or headed nonchalantly.

Last year, Mountain View City Council approved a new permit system that allows businesses to test personal delivery devices on their streets. Starship Technologies was the first to launch an on-demand food and parcel courier service for Intuit employees on the company's 4.3-acre campus last April.

Mary Campione renders a book using Book Bot in Mountain View, Calif., On Thursday, March 7, 2019. The book-picking device makes home calls to take library books and returns them to the Mountain View Library. (Randy Vazquez / Bay Area Press Group)

Mary Campione, a resident of Mountain View for more than 30 years, said it was not surprising to see more robots roaming the streets of Google and the city's other tech companies.

"We live in the epicenter of technology," Campione said. "There are always autonomous cars and robots in the restaurants. So no, it's not so surprising. "

Campione heard about BookBot on Facebook when it was launched in late February. It only operates within a certain radius of the Mountain View Public Library and schedules are limited to Thursdays from 11:00 to 20:00. Users must plan in advance the removal, which means that because the bot is quite popular, it should be at least a week in advance. According to Bersch, it can hold about 10 objects depending on the size of the books.

Campione said it was unlikely that she would order a van again as she lives a few steps away. "It's a novelty. I was just excited because it's fun and that's a good use of technology. "

A reading robot travels near the Mountain View Library in Mountain View, California on Thursday, March 7, 2019. The book-picking device issues home calls to retrieve library books and returns them to the Mountain View Library. (Randy Vazquez / Bay Area Press Group)

Like all libraries, Mountain View discovers that there is a certain percentage of scofflaws that for some reason do not return their books, said Tracy Gray, director of the library. She hopes that the bot will give people with mobility problems, who are recovering from an injury, who are ill or who have a baby who sleeps at home another opportunity to continue to enjoy the services of the library.

"It's a great way to give people the opportunity to give back their books without leaving the house," she said.

[ad_2]

Source link