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The following paper is a “Q & A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned successful business leader, regarding the commercialization and challenges of bringing technological inventions to market while overseeing a company. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The interviewee is Dr Steve Cousins, a seasoned executive, entrepreneur and innovator with a strong track record for managing research and development organizations and realizing a significant return on investment. Dr Cousins has dedicated the past near-decade of his life to the mission of building and deploying personal and service robotic technology to assist people. In this interview, Dr Cousins discusses some of the technical and business insights that have led to his most recent robotic advancements as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Savioke, a company that is creating autonomous robot helpers for the services industry.

Dr Cousins received his BS and MS degrees in computer science from Washington University, and holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University. Dr Cousins managed the Advanced Systems Development Laboratory at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and then went on to lead the IBM Almaden Research Center, one of the top human–computer interaction research groups in the world, as the Senior Manager of the User-Focused Systems Research Group. While at IBM, Dr Cousins earned a micro-MBA.

Dr Cousins is spearheading a new business model for robotics, Robots as a Service (RaaS), with Savioke’s flagship mobile robot, Relay. Based on the information technology industry service trend of improving customer experiences, Savioke is successfully applying RaaS to the hospitality industry with about 10 Relays at half a dozen US major hotels. Before founding Savioke, Dr Cousins was the President and CEO of Willow Garage, where he oversaw the creation of the robot operating system (ROS), the PR2 robot and the open-source TurtleBot. In the last three years of his tenure at Willow Garage, Dr Cousins spun off eight successful companies: Suitable Technologies (maker of the Beam remote presence system); Industrial Perception, Inc. (acquired by Google in 2013); Redwood Robotics (acquired by Google in 2013); HiDOF (ROS and robotics consulting); Unbounded Robotics; The Open Source Robotics Foundation; The OpenCV Foundation; and The Open Perception Foundation. Dr Cousins is an active participant in the Robots for Humanity project.

Purpose: This chapter describes the design and implementation, at the computer hardware and software level, of the Greggg robot. Greggg is a scalable high performance, low cost hospitality robot constructed from off-the-shelf parts. Greggg has a robust architecture and acts as a tour guide on-campus, both indoors or outdoors. This research allows one to build a customized robot at a low cost, under U.S. $2,000, for accomplishing the desired hospitality tasks, and scale, and expand the capability of the robot as required.

Practical Implications: The practical implication of the research is the capability to build and program a robot for hospitality tasks. Greggg is a customizable robot capable of giving on-campus tours both indoors and outdoors. In its current architecture, Greggg can be trained to be a museum docent and give directions to visitors on-campus or at an airport and scaled up for other hospitality tasks using off-the-shelf components. Enhancing the robot by scaling it up and expanding it, in addition to testing it with a range of increasingly more difficult tasks using machine learning algorithms, is highly beneficial to advancing research on the use of robots in the hospitality sector. Greggg can also be used for Robot-as-a-service (Rass) applications.

Societal Implications: The economic implication of Greggg is the ease and low cost with which one, with minimal technology know-how, can construct an autonomous hospitality industry robot. This chapter details the hardware and software needed to build a low cost scalable and customizable autonomous robot for the hospitality industry without having to pay an exorbitant price.

Research/Limitations/Implications: This research allows one to build their own customized hospitality robot under U.S. $2,000. Given the cost of building the robot, it has limitations on the hospitality tasks it can perform. It can navigate on flat surfaces, has limited vision and speech processing capabilities and has a battery life not exceeding an hour. Furthermore, it does not have any robotic manipulators or tactile processing capabilities.

Despite its potential, warehouse managers still struggle to successfully assimilate autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in their operations. This paper means to identify the moderating factors of AMR assimilation for production warehouses that influence the digital transformation of their intralogistics via AMRs.

Drawing on innovation of assimilation theory (IAT), this study followed an explorative approach using the principles of the case study method in business research. The cases comprised of four AMR end users and six AMR service providers. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews.

Four clusters of moderators that affect each stage of AMR assimilation were identified. These clusters include organizational attributes of end users (i.e. production warehouses), service attributes of service providers, technology attributes of AMRs and relational attributes between the AMR service providers and the AMR end users.

The authors extend the IAT framework by identifying various moderating factors between different stages of the AMR assimilation process. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to introduce the perspective of AMR end users in conjunction with AMR service providers to the “Industry 4.0” technology assimilation literature. The study propositions regarding these factors guide future intralogistics and AMR research.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of research on robotics in travel, tourism and hospitality, and to identify research gaps and directions for future research.

This paper analyzes 131 publications published during 1993-2019, identified via Scopus, Web of Science, ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Google Scholar. It offers quantitative analysis of frequencies and cross-tables and qualitative thematic analysis of the publications within each of seven identified domains.

The paper identifies “Robot,” “Human,” “Robot manufacturer,” “Travel/tourism/hospitality company,” “Servicescape,” “External environment” and “Education, training and research” as the research domains. Most research studies are dedicated to robots in restaurants, airports, hotels and bars. Papers tend to apply engineering methods, but experiments and surveys grow in popularity. Asia-Pacific countries account for much of the empirical research.

The analysis was limited to publications indexed in four databases and one search engine. Only publications in English were considered. Growing opportunities for those who are anxious to publish in the field are identified. Importantly, emerging research is branching out from the engineering of robots to the possibilities for human/robot interactions and their use for service providers, opening up new avenues of research for tourism and hospitality scholars.

The paper identified a myriad of application areas for robots across various tourism and hospitality sectors. Service providers must critically think about how robots affect the servicescape and how it needs to be adjusted or re-imagined to ensure that robots and employees can augment the service experiences (co-)created within it.

This is the first study to systematically analyze research publications on robotics in travel, tourism and hospitality.

本论文全面评论了在旅游酒店业中的机器人技术的研究, 并指出文献缺口和未来研究方向。

本论文分析了在1993年至2019年发布在Scopus、Web of Science、ResearchGate、Academia.edu、和Google Scholar的131篇文献。本论文对文献做了一系列定量分析, 包括频率分析、交叉表、定性文本分析、在七大确立的领域中对每个领域的文献进行分析。

本论文确立了七个研究领域：机器人、人类、机器生产者、旅游酒店企业、Servicescape、外部环境、和教育培训和研究。大多数文献集中在对饭店、机场、酒店、和酒吧的机器人研究。文献往往采用工程手段进行研究, 但是实验和问卷方式正在呈增长趋势。亚太国家占据大多数实证研究作品。

本论文样本库局限于四个数据库和一个搜索引擎。只有英文文献被采样。本论文为对相关领域感兴趣的学者指出研究方向。重要的是, 本论文发现用工程角度研究机器人的文献有了分支, 有一小部分文献开始着手研究人/机器人交互和其在服务过程中的使用的研究, 这对旅游酒店学者提供新研究视角。

本论文指出了一系列有关旅游酒店领域中机器人的应用。服务商必须重视机器人如何影响Servicescape以及如何审视机器人与人的交互, 确保其与员工加强消费者的服务体验（价值共创）。

本论文是首篇系统评论旅游酒店领域中机器人研究文献的文章。

关键词：机器人、机器人经济、机器人设计、机器人使用、Servicescape、rService、人-机器人交互、研究议程

The purpose of this study is to review recent work in the robotics literature and identify future opportunities for consumer/tourist experience research in human-robot interactions (HRIs).

The paper begins by covering the framework of robotic agent presence and embodiment that are relevant for HRI. Next, the paper identifies future opportunities for hospitality and tourism scholars to undertake consumer/tourist experience research in HRIs.

The result of this study provided potential directions for advancing theoretical, methodological and managerial implications for tourism experience research in HRI.

Concepts from robotics research are diffusing into a range of disciplines, from engineering to social sciences. These advancements open many unique, yet urgent, opportunities for hospitality and tourism research.

This paper illustrates the speed at which robotics research is progressing. Moreover, the concepts reviewed in this research on robotic presence and embodiment are relevant for real-world applications in hospitality and tourism.

Developments in robotics research will transform hospitality and tourism experiences in the future.

This research is one of the early papers in the field to review robotics research and provide innovative directions to broaden the interdisciplinary perspective for future hospitality and tourism research.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry PhD-turned successful business leader, regarding the commercialization and challenges of bringing technological inventions to market. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The interviewee is Dr Tessa Lau, an experienced entrepreneur with expertise in AI, machine learning, and robotics, who thrives on the challenges of creating startups. She is currently Founder/CEO at Dusty Robotics, whose mission is to address construction industry productivity by introducing robotic automation on the jobsite. In this interview, Lau discusses her technical and business insights from the startups she built.

Dr Lau received her BA and BS from Cornell University in computer science and applied & engineering physics; and an MS and PhD degree in computer science from University of Washington. Prior to co-founding Dusty in April 2018, she was CTO/co-founder at Savioke, where she orchestrated the deployment of 75+ delivery robots into hotels and high-rises. Previously, Lau was a research scientist at Willow Garage, where she developed simple interfaces for personal robots. She also spent 11 years at IBM Research working in business process automation and knowledge capture.

Dr Lau, known as the Chief Robot Whisperer, is a robot industry disruptor who is passionate about pioneering technology that gives people super-powers. Lau has built two businesses, large, successful venture capital-funded companies. Lau was named 2017 Woman of Influence by The Silicon Valley Business Journal and one of the most creative business people by Fast Company in 2015. Over the years, Lau has served on program committees for various major HCI and AI conferences and on the board for the CRA-W – the committee for the status of women in computing research.

Purpose: The purpose is to introduce the fundamental economic concepts that must be wrestled with the incorporation of robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) into the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

Design/methodology/approach: This chapter uses cost-benefit analytical framework of the incorporation of RAISA technologies into travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

Findings: The chapter elaborates on the economic fundamentals of RAISA adoption into the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. The analysis reveals that many financial and non-financial costs and benefits need to be considered when taking a decision to use RAISA technologies. Automation of tasks leads to simultaneous substitution and enhancement of human employees. Introduction of RAISA technologies results on inevitable deskilling of some and upskilling of other tourism and hospitality jobs.

Research limitations/implications: The chapter is conceptual and conclusions are limited by the views and interpretations of the authors.

Practical implications: RAISA technologies will become increasingly omnipresent in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. That is why an understanding of the costs and benefits and many of the practical impediments to the incursion of RAISA into the workplace should be understood to make a transition from human-performed tasks to technology-performed tasks.

Social implications: Replacement of human labour will have significant social implications for the workforce and employers.

Originality/value: This is one of the few publications that discuss the economic aspects of the incorporation of RAISA technologies into travel, tourism and hospitality industries.