Meet MIU: Barcelona’s Urban Robot Designed To Help People

There seems to be some fear in the world about “the coming of robots” that will take over humanity. This was taken to a new level recently when the famous pioneer, Elon Musk, described Artificial Intelligence, as being the greatest existential threat to humanity. Well, like many others, we think his comments are way off the mark. The greatest threat to humanity is probably humanity itself but that’s another topic of debate. The reality is that AI and robots are a really long way from being autonomously dangerous. Despite great leaps in robotics in recent years, it is still incredibly difficult for robots to do most of the simplest things humans do, especially outside of a controlled environment.

At Zinc we are fascinated by the potential that technology has to solve problems for humans and the planet at large and we feel that the benefits of robots could far outweigh any dangers in the foreseeable future. That is why, when we were invited to speak at Europe’s largest robotics event – Innorobo – about the potential of robots in the ‘Smart City’ environment, we took on the challenge, not just to speak there, but to design an urban robot concept.Having just spent six months involved in the Cognicity ‘Smart City’ programme in London, where we were the product development partner responsible for mentoring startups and helping to imagine the city of the future, we felt inspired to think deeper about solving issues in the urban environment. 

Rather than think about infrastructure efficiency and data optimization, we wanted to think specifically about how robots could improve peoples’ day-to-day lives in the city.We decided to focus on what is realistic in the near term – the next 5 to 10 years – rather than blue sky thinking about the future. We then reached the conclusion rather quickly that the biggest opportunity was around a mobile information unit. How could that be? We all have mobile phones that we are glued to, so we can get all the information we need there, right? Well the reality is that people walking around the streets with their eyes glued to their phones are very annoying for everyone else, as they bump into others and make people move out the way for them. Furthermore, having done a little bit of research, it turns out people don’t always want to have their heads buried in their phones, especially when they’re with others. Therefore we envisaged several different scenarios in which our robot, named MIU (Mobile Information Unit), could benefit people and the city.We came up with a solution for a semi-autonomous mobile robot that uses ‘ball bot’ technology to move around. This enables a smaller footprint and allows people to get closer to them.

The MIU is an idea that helps us bridge the information gap that occurs between large scale billboards/signs that have generic information and small personal devices that are not always as useful as their promise when out and about in the urban environment.We see these robots as having some human monitoring and control in the background, instructing them when necessary to move or change functionality but of course they would have sensors and ability to navigate by themselves too. We thought a lot about the physical design, deliberately avoiding any kind of humanoid design that can be intimidating and a bit weird. We also used Barcelona as the context so our physical design takes inspiration from the coastal location and the history of great design and urban architecture. However, each MIU could be designed to integrate into its specific context or they could be designed in a more neutral generic way to suit all city environments.Use Case: Urban navigation without mobile.
Whether we are citizens or tourists, we all need information at some point to find places in the city. Walking along a busy street trying to follow a GPS on a small mobile screen is actually a really bad experience, not just for the user but for everyone else. Trying to navigate via this means with another person is even worse, both of you hunched over a mobile trying to work out where you are, it’s not good. Imagine large screens interspersed in useful busy areas that show maps really clearly. The great thing about them being mobile is they can be strategically placed in specific locations depending on what’s happening that day.Use Case: Contextual information about the local area
People are often looking for very specific information about a location on a specific day. If you’re in London and you decide to go to the South Bank for the day, it would be great to know what’s happening when you get there: exhibitions, live music, restaurant opening times etc. Trying to find that out via Google on your mobile isn’t a great experience. Maybe there is an App for that area but if you haven’t downloaded already, then that’s also a lot of effort. Our mobile robots could roam around the area providing contextual information about what is happening that day or even in the next hour. It’s also a great opportunity for local businesses to do real time promotions.Use Case:  Helping the flow of the city
Sometimes areas of cities can get closed off or congested with serious traffic or hoards of pedestrians for various reasons (accidents, construction & repairs, big events). Various MIU’s could be mobilized to the area so they can provide real time information about what roads are blocked, what other transport is available, and how to bypass that area in the easiest way. In this way, they could help citizens, local authorities and transport services. They could even be used as temporary traffic lights if they aren’t working for some reason.

Use Case: Information concentrated zones 
There are certain places where information is crucial and sometimes hard to come by. Airports, train stations, shopping malls and sports stadiums are all a good example. People are always looking for information whether it’s what platform the train goes from or where to find a shop that sells birthday cards. What tends to happen is people end up asking policemen, security guards, or other types of workers that are not there for providing information services.

These are just a few examples although we can think of many more. The main point is that we don’t believe mobile phones are the answer to everything and actually they can be very anti social. MIU’s that can be strategically used for any given situation on any given day could be really helpful. If we look at our home town of Barcelona, there is a real problem with too much tourism taking over parts of the city and creating tension with the locals. We don’t pretend that we can solve that with robots but you could certainly help to disperse people from the concentrated areas by providing them with real time information about other cool things happening in the city outside of that zone.

In the longer term, we believe there could be many other use cases for urban robots beyond information systems, such as street cleaning and emergency services, but obviously that brings another level of complexity that needs to be solved. On that note, our robot design is like a concept car, utilizing the latest technology that is possible right now, just not used in this configuration. We would still need a lot more thinking to implement but it’s not unrealistic either.  Far from taking over humanity, we believe robots can be a help to everyday people going about their lives, and that’s what excites us at Zinc.

Interesting article in French media (for French speakers)  from the conference: Le Journal International