Humanoid Robots as a Helping Hand in the Government Sector: A Casewise Analysis
Acknowledging the new stringent measures due to the pandemic, there is an increased need for countermeasures to keep the customers safe and lessen human interaction for the government. Administrative tasks to altered to mitigate the risk of virus spread. Governments across the world have been implementing various preventive measures to protect citizens and thereupon are flooded with extra work. Adapting to the new situation has been difficult for both the employer and the employee and technology is the only way out to ease the process for everyone. Pepper is set to sail to assist in public sectors for optimizing administrative tasks, sending across necessary information, improving data collection, and entertaining you along the way! In this article, SoftBank Robotics Europe would like to introduce some use cases of how Pepper, a humanoid robot, optimizes administration in the Government industry. The following topics elaborate on the examples of these trends in collaboration with a few of our partners and their clients in France, Germany, the UAE, and Japan and visualize how robotics plays a pivotal role in relieving staff workloads.
Automation trends enhancing the use of Robotics in the Government Industry
1. Creating a long-lasting experience
Unlike businesses, Governments cater to citizens and not customers. Governments globally work upon creating experiences that have a long-lasting impact on citizens. Small changes make a big difference, for example gaining important information about a particular topic while in a waiting room of a government facility through a humanoid robot has a long-lasting experience on people. It is indeed a tool of automation that can be programmed as per your needs & preferences and effectively creates a memorable experience for everyone visiting your facility. Imagine being entertained by a robot in the waiting room of a public facility? A robot that not only looks like a human but also possesses answers to many of your questions! Pepper gives your services a boost by ensuring proactive engagement and excellent digital services proving to be an asset in public services.
2. Collecting feedback
Although feedback is now a significant part of the day-to-day operations for every government facility, it gets difficult to get unbiased feedback each time, resulting in inaccurate information. Pepper enables gathering comprehensive & unbiased feedback from people effortlessly, owing to its humanoid shape and proactive nature. The data collected can be used to improve services effectiveness and lead to effective decision-making at your public facility.
3. Optimizing administration process
Many times, repetitive tasks take more time thus wasting a lot of time employees could've used for other necessary tasks. Our superstar Pepper makes it easy to optimize your administrative tasks by doing all repetitive tasks such as consultation, online administrative services, on-demand reports generation, concierge & ticketing. For a public facility, handing over repetitive tasks to a humanoid robot could not only lessen your burden but also bring a unique innovation to your facility. Through its ability of customized interaction, Pepper can identify the person and adapt its behavior to his/her profile.
4. Mask-checking, Social Distancing, and Edutainment
With the unprecedented times of COVID-19, it is significant to keep check for masks to prevent the spread of viruses in your facility. Pepper with its ability to detect complex masks ensures safety at your facility. Pepper also ensures social distancing by consistently educating people. In this post covid era, it is important to guide and remind all people of the safety rules in the government facilities. Wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing are paramount tools to avert infection at all times and Pepper ensures that throughout the day without getting tired or taking breaks! With activities targeting all age groups, Pepper can also entertain you with its social skill and efficiently deliver the right messages to citizens.
5. Queue Management
Pepper as an effective digital system can reduce citizens’ waiting time. Pepper enables determining metrics such as total footfall, conversion rates, amongst many others. The data collected can be used to understand the needs of citizens, discover new opportunities for citizen welfare and organize staff efficiently. This enables a public sector facility to plan with confidence and use the data to gain deeper insights that were unknown earlier. In our extremely fast-moving lives, it is difficult to stand in long queues and a humanoid robot comes to your rescue to enhance effectiveness at your facility!
Pepper in Action @ Public Services Across The Globe
With our partner, Entrance Robotics in Germany, Pepper enabled effortless operation at Wuppertal Vaccination Centre by proactively welcoming patients and helping in conquering nervousness before the vaccination. After vaccination, when the patients are under observation for 15 minutes, Pepper collects feedback that is used to improve customer experience & provides the acknowledgment for vaccine preparation.COVID-19 is a relatively new concept for everyone and the constant bombardment of news, conversations, and discussions might leave people overwhelmed. It is necessary to ensure the transfer of correct information for the vaccination and the aftercare. A humanoid robot with its enhanced AI & human-like exterior makes it simple to educate people with correct and consistent information to all and is seen to be possibly effective for vaccination centers around the world.“With several hundred vaccines per day, a social robot is an asset to give out repetitive information so that the staff can focus on other important tasks” - Tobias Krebber, Head of Wuppertal vaccine distribution.
1. Wuppertal Vaccination Centre, Germany
With our partner, Entrance Robotics in Germany, Pepper enabled effortless operation at Wuppertal Vaccination Centre by proactively welcoming patients and helping in conquering nervousness before the vaccination. After vaccination, when the patients are under observation for 15 minutes, Pepper collects feedback that is used to improve customer experience & provides the acknowledgment for vaccine preparation. COVID-19 is a relatively new concept for everyone and the constant bombardment of news, conversations, and discussions might leave people overwhelmed. It is necessary to ensure the transfer of correct information for the vaccination and the aftercare. A humanoid robot with its enhanced AI & human-like exterior makes it simple to educate people with correct and consistent information to all and is seen to be possibly effective for vaccination centers around the world.“With several hundred vaccines per day, a social robot is an asset to give out repetitive information so that the staff can focus on other important tasks” - Tobias Krebber, Head of Wuppertal vaccine distribution.
2. Road and Transport Authority, Dubai
With our partner, Jacky’s Business SolutionPepper trained 600 rivers in 3 months for Expo 2020 in Dubai. Pepper with its magnificent AI base was capable of handling interactive training sessions that kept the drivers focused. Conquering the challenge of training a large number of bus drivers, Pepper helped in refining the skills of drivers and improved training deliverables. Pepper’s exceptional help contributed to the organization’s obtaining the ISO 21001: 2018 certification in the public transport sector. The certificate strengthens its pioneering role in the field of training passenger transport drivers.
3. Mairie du 15th Paris
The city hall of Paris 15th District is the building of the municipal services of the district. The city hall provides various services to its residents, the reception service team is in charge of welcoming, guiding, and informing the public about its administrative procedures to the services provided by the city hall. With our partner, Hoomano, Pepper managed the services of welcoming proactively to impress the guests and deliver an innovative first impression. Additionally, Pepper catered to providing appointment services, by registering, confirming & notifying the arrival of the visitors. Alongside, Pepper uniquely entertains visitors to make their waiting time interesting. With the effective assistance of Pepper, the staff had more time and energy for more valuable activities; the visitors' waiting time was optimized and the city hall experience became more attractive to the residents.
4. Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, Dubai
Commonly known as DEWA, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority is the exclusive provider of electricity and water services to the citizens and residents of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Under the name Rammas, Pepper was deployed at DEWA to mainly reduce the number of visits, and fortunately, Pepper has answered about 3.6 million inquiries from January 2017 to mid-June 2020. This has resulted in supporting DEWA’s intent to become paperless and has already become so in 82% of its operations. The E-Government Development Index 2020 (EGDI) issued by the United Nations highlighted Rammas as one of the UAE’s distinguished experiences in interacting with customers.
5. Government of Tokyo, Japan
Pepper has been of great significance amidst the coronavirus outbreak in the world. At a government hospital in Tokyo, Pepper has welcomed guests in a quarantine Hotel set up by Tokyo Government used for mildly sick coronavirus patients under a new plan to free up beds at hospitals overburdened with more severe cases. Pepper at the reception is educating patients about the virus, & reminding patients to check their temperature. Pepper also reminds patients to check their temperature and rest well. Guests can also access health management applications on computers and tablets to record their temperatures and symptoms. Pepper is spreading happiness & supporting patients with Covid-19 who are isolated in single rooms through its humanoid & social behavior.
Final Thoughts
Essentially enabling digital progression in the Government industry, a humanoid robot can also ease many processes. Government industry catering to largely the citizens are currently overburdened with work due to the heavy spread of the virus in some parts of the world. Vaccination centers require a consistent flow of information about the novel coronavirus, vaccination, aftercare of the vaccination, mask detection, and social distancing amongst many others. A humanoid robot is significantly a tool that can tirelessly work to not only educate citizens about COVID-19 but also help in queue management, entertainment & handling other repetitive tasks.
Not only in vaccination centers, but Pepper has also been of great value in other government facilities as well. Pepper can welcome your guests, manage visitors and reduce congestion times at the reception. Additionally, it can create an emphatic link with citizens, thereby increasing interactions at your facility. Pepper can conduct surveys, provide on-demand services, and collect data that can be highly beneficial in generating insights that were unknown earlier. Do you want to uniquely innovate your facility? Get assistance from a humanoid robot at your disposal. Contact us to know more about our humanoid robots!
