Humanoid Receptionist Connected to IoT Subsystems and Smart Infrastructure is Smarter than Expected

The authors of this paper have the unique opportunity to design the AI engine of a humanoid front desk office (receptionist) employee. The designed AI engine conception is strongly influenced by the Smart Infrastructure approach, making the robot be just an interface to a complex system cooperating with various databases, subsystems and IoT modules and sensors. The WeegreOne robot has been given the access to a wide variety of preferred conversation topics, additional facts, databases and sensors, making it become a valuable interlocutor. The prototype has been installed, and the AI engine have adapted to most of the real-case uses. Surprisingly, human interlocutors neither do not use nor discover the full functionality and versatility of the robot. The research team extended the usability and connectivity of the robot while analyzing the interactions with the employees and visitors of the company. The article presents the concept, design and final thoughts on the results of the experiment that people seem not to need robotic employees to be really smart or versatile or people seem to underestimate the versatility of robotic employees. (C) 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.