The use of technology in business can be attributed to the changes in the business environment and the enterprise are doing business. Both small and huge business are adopting and implementing technology for different purposes. For instance, all agencies are now using servers, computers; websites, cloud computing to change the way they communicate with clients, marketing their products to increase their competitive advantages and survival (Akaka & Vargo, 2014). There is various importance of using technology as it allows for reduction of costs associated with running the business due to automation of manual functions like record keeping, and retrieval of the same. Business owners are now employing technology in the process of ensuring secure environments and maintaining consumer information and that of the firm, increasing workers’ productivity and reduce human labor (Scarbrough & Corbett, 2013).
The potential business identified in the paper is cleaning business services and the emerging technology in the industry to be used includes robotic technology. The company will be identified by the name unique cleaning and target huge organizations of all kinds such as hotels, schools, media organizations and others. The company has more than 500 cleaners trained to handle many situations such as hygiene, fire, and other emergencies and has a considerable working experience in working in many companies. The company will be based in Sydney and Queensland with a strategy to expand to other regions in the coming years. The focus will be a supply of cleaning services to clients ranging from daily cleaning to monthly and years to companies requiring frequent cleaning.
Many existing ventures focusing on providing cleaning services to organizations are now replacing human effort with robots in a bid to cut the cost of operation and speed the process. Besides, the pace of automation is due to the emergence of new and disruptive technologies that offers help. However, the technology was recently used for cleaning services but was used for the industrial purpose for many decades (Ford, 2015). Over the years scientists through a rigorous process realized that the robots were commercially viable in the cleaning sector and thus the plan was implemented. Currently, many ventures have slowly replaced their cleaning contractors with artificial intelligence machines to cope with the recent trends and gain competitive advantages in the market (Gwiazda, et al., 2015).
The cleaning venture will use robot technology to offer its services to consumers who include big and small businesses in Melbourne and Queensland and later expand in other regions. What is the meaning of technology? What are robots? The term technology is defined as knowledge that that aims to create tools for the processing of products and for extracting materials. However, the term is broad, and organizations and individuals have their understanding based on the tasks and activities performed such as the manufacture of products and other processes. Companies use technology to extend their abilities, and thus unique cleaning services will use robot technology to offer services to clients (Lin, Abney, & Bekey, 2014).
Therefore, the technology will be applied to solve client’s problem and to accomplish myriads of tasks in the industry. According to Subhan robotics are increasingly becoming visible and essential part of the modern business in many industries such as military, manufacturing, automobile industry and the domestic sector. However, in the next decades, business owners will have increased the use of technology for the purpose of increasing the production and other activities (Subhan, Bhide, & SSGB COE, 2014). Besides, industrial robots have found their ways into the laboratories, warehouses, medical sector among others. The term robot is defined as a multifunctional, reprogrammable object designed to perform various activities such as material, tools, devices (Salem, Lakatos, Amirabdollahian, & Dautenhahn, 2015).
The venture will incorporate the vacuum cleaners and pool cleaners in the provision of cleaning services. Some of the potential consumers include hotels, offices, hospitals, companies and homes, the institution of learning (Smith, 2013). However, as the business advances, the company will procure more technology and expand to other broader services such as window cleaning. A vacuum cleaner also is known by users as a sweeper is a cleaning device that utilizes a centrifugal fan to form a vacuum that is used for sucking dirt and dust found in the carpets and dirt from other services such as tiles, wall and the walking path. When using the robot to clean, the dust and dirt are directed into a dust bag placed in the machine and then disposed (Ford, 2015)
In the business, the Vacuum cleaners will be used to clean carpet and floor surfacing. For a start, the business will procure the medium sized that uses a small battery and held by hand. For domestic cleaning, the wheeled canister models will be purchased, and for large offices, they will have a huge bins which can store huge amount of dust and dirt before being disposed or emptied. Besides, the company will procure an automated pool cleaner to provide pool cleaning services to hotel, school, and offices. The machine will be used to gather sediment and debris from the swimming pools, and the task is accomplished with minimal human intervention and thus no need to employ more people to work for Unique cleaning services (Pryor, 2016).
Unique cleaning services will engage in the acquisition of robotic technology for cleaning services namely vacuum cleaners and pool cleaners to be used for providing cleaning services to clients. According to Ju & Sohn, acquisition of robotic technology will involve the purchase of internal and external knowledge of the technology that takes place without cooperation with the company that manufactures the technology (Ju & Sohn, 2015). In addition, it has everything to do with the hiring of employees who have the required knowledge on how to work with it and use of consulting services providers to help in the whole process. In the case of unique cleaning services, the process of acquisition will be supported by the consulting firms to ensure the process is smooth and technology acquired is not faulty (Akaka & Vargo, 2014). For example, use of the third party will help in understanding whether the acquired technology is up to date, whether it has the required functionality and others such as patents and repair.
The challenge that many businesses face in choosing a technology such as a robot for the services is not lack of knowledge on whether the robot is needed or not, but selecting the best robotic technology that best fits the functions and services to be offered to consumers (Salem, Lakatos, Amirabdollahian, & Dautenhahn, 2015). The International Federation of Robotics explains that the sales of robot across the world have been on the increased trend for the last five years which means more business are increasingly adopting the technology for provision of services and other uses (Barfoot & Brock, 2015). For instance more and more firms across all industries such as cleaning, manufacturing, domestic are seeking the help of robotic solutions to boost further their reduce costs, production capacity, increasing speed, complement the workforce and ensure worker safety. Due to the rise of technology and rise of artificial intelligence research, the robotic technology is becoming smarter, adaptable, efficient and collaborative. With advanced sensing capabilities, vision and other incorporate technologies the robots used in all kind of business can perform many complex tasks which were seen as technically impossible for the last five years (Rabbitt, Kazdin, & Scassellati, 2015). Therefore, the reason why unique cleaning services have decided to invest in robotic technologies is due to the mentioned factors.
The venture management will first explore the environment in which it will be working such as hospitals, hotels and the surrounding environment and know how the robotics will be applied. Besides, there is a need to consider the particular problem that will be solved and come up with the recommendation of how the business will gain benefits such as cost reductions; efficiency increased productivity, improved employees safety and further reducing the cost of labor. These benefits will serve as the basis in which Unique cleaning services will decide to put an investment because they are essential factors that determine whether the robotics considered are right on not for the designated functions (Rabbitt, Kazdin, & Scassellati, 2015).
When acquiring the technology, the company will consider various features to evaluate the potential of robotic in performing designated tasks. Adaptability of the technology in business is paramount because the traditional robots were only used to perform tasks which were considered repetitive and were fenced off due to their perceived risks on a human being. However, the Today robots have the capability to perform many tasks without posing a threat to the safety of human beings and also can collaborate in the same environment. The firm looking for this technology need to Robots that are equipped with spatial awareness to guarantee the safety of the workers in a flexible way (Moradi, et al., 2013). Also, prior intelligence is essential when selecting a robotic technology for cleaning services. For instance, it is necessary to choose a robot with 3D vision systems because it increases the capabilities of the technology to function better in the environment where it will be expected to work (Hägele, Nilsson, Pires, & Bischoff, 2016).
3D vision systems should be combined with sensing abilities because it makes the robot handle complex and sophisticated tasks such as handling difficult items when cleaning. For example, vision-enabled robots can observe present or absent features and gauge their size and weight. Features on a given package. Further, it can make it possible to identify and sort them based on categories. Therefore in cleaning business robot with such features can determine the location of a bin, pick and handle it because of these capabilities. Besides, they can enhance feedback and various control due to infrared sensing (Hägele, Nilsson, Pires, & Bischoff, 2016).
According to Hagele when choosing a cleaning robot, one need to identify the dangers in the environment and those that can be afflicted to workers and those around the environment. Therefore, if the cleaning services are carried on hazardous conditions that can expose workers to risk such as hospitals, it is important to choose the best kind of robotics that can be used in such environment. For example, robots cannot contract pathogens in hospital wards when compared human, and this means it can work better and thus minimize exposure to threat and increase worker safety (Hagele, 2016).
Besides, when selecting the robot, it should work everywhere even in areas where there are too unrealistic. However, the one selected must have end-effector and vision technologies to make it possible to work anywhere. Once the factors discussed are considered and evaluated, the company budget should be put into consideration in the procurement of the design of the robotic technology (Hagele, 2016).
In the process of acquisition, the company will work with a qualified robotic firm to help identify the best technology, features, and the appropriate price. It is essential to work with such consultant because they help leverage the knowledge and incorporate the experience acquired in other ventures (Siciliano & Khatib, 2016; Ford, 2015). In the end, this will assist the company to select the technology design that can provide the end-effector needed to perform the required task. Other benefits include training of employees on how to handle to robotic technology and minimizing its effects. In case the procured technology can be defective in of performing the roles and functions expected, then adjustment can be achieved early enough (Barfoot & Brock, 2015).
Robots used for cleaning and specifically vacuum cleaners and pool cleaners like other machine are linked with inherent imperfections that might affect their working. When the company is using the robotics technology in cleaning, some issues may arise. As technology continues to become sophisticated and advances, this does not mean that the challenges are solved because new technology comes with different problems. However, the growth is beneficial because it increases the speed and perfection of the task performed with minimal human intervention (Siciliano & Khatib, 2016). The robotic technology that will be used has no understanding of human emotions, and thus their operation may go against the wish of humanity in performing cleaning duties. Therefore, a human being has an obligation to guide the action and moves of the robots due to lack of morals ability to conduct themselves.
Another robot issues that might be experienced is support and troubleshooting problems. Within the venture, there may be a problem that might occur when selecting the best robots that are compatible with our skills and the services we need to offer for the companies. Therefore, the issues of maintenance need to be considered before procurement takes place (Cianchetti, Nanayakkara, Althoefer, Dasgupta, & Menciassi, 2014; Hagele, 2016). This is because different robot companies produce machines that have their control systems, and therefore require their systems to operate them. This means when a problem occurs with the robot, there will be a problem such as lack of specialist skills to be able to deal with problems that might occur when performing the cleaning tasks. For example, there are difficult areas where users can have difficulties such as connecting to the power, signaling and safety circuits. However, the main issues are troubleshooting because users are not conversant with programming language and software used. The problem exists because there has been no standardized language of programming due to massive competition between different firms (Alimisis, 2013; Salem, Lakatos, Amirabdollahian, & Dautenhahn, 2015).
Another maintenance and support issues affecting robots is a lack of skills required to reprogram the artificial intelligence machines when a major repair such as arm replacement is done with another identical arm. For instance, it requires a lot of setting and reprogramming because each arm has a different signature. Therefore the primary concern is what will happen when a major replacement is done or in cases where the technology fails either by default or by design leading to economic loss, injury, property damage and loss of life (Flores-Abad, Ma, Pham, & Ulrich, 2014).
When using the robotic technology, there are various legal, difficulties that may arise due to lack of framework in the organization and countries. The possibility of injuries during interaction with the robots and possible death is very high. In such a scenario, who is responsible for the damages and who can be prosecuted? For instance, can manufacture be sued for incorrect coding or products and services? These are issues that need consideration, and they can be solved through policy and rules that allow better interaction between man and technology and having a legal advisor (Salem, Lakatos, Amirabdollahian, & Dautenhahn, 2015).
However, despite the many advantages in their use, the use of robot poses myriads of threats to a human being. Research revealed that robots technology utilizes insecure communications, problems with authentication, lack of authorization schemes, the presence of weak cryptography and the privacy of information is jeopardized because they have poor configurations. Therefore due to this issues, there is a possibility of cyber attackers to launch malicious commands on the robots that can threaten human lives (Gwiazda, et al., 2015). Besides, some of the robots do not need any authentication due to weak mechanisms that can be bypassed by hackers. For example in the case of a hack of robots, spying can take place through cameras, microphones, exposure of private information.
In addition, due to their active abilities, there are other dangers posed by robots such as hurting a human, destroying objects and killing due to sudden moves (Subhan, Bhide, & SSGB COE, 2014). For example, robots can be accessed remotely by hackers, and this could lead to attacking humans, wreak havoc or destroy the floor and other properties where it is working. This is not new as there have been people attacked by robots and crushed to death due to sudden movement due to security flaws.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the venture to be considered is cleaning enterprise, and the technology to be incorporated includes robotic technology. When acquiring the technology, the company should consider the environment in which it will work and the features that will work best and perform better in the designated tasks and responsibility. Further, there are difficulties due to lack of knowledge on how to deal with programming issues and the legal problems due to damages of properties and hurting people. There are also risks such as hacking or remote access and the damages that can be caused by the same.
References
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Alimisis, D. (2013). Educational robotics: Open questions and new challenges. Themes in Science and Technology Education, 6(1), 63-71.
Barfoot, T., & Brock, O. (2015). Special Issue on the Sixteenth International Symposium on Robotics Research, 2013. New York: Springer publishers.
Cianchetti, M. R., Nanayakkara, T., Althoefer, K., Dasgupta, P., & Menciassi, A. (2014). Soft robotics technologies to address shortcomings in today’s minimally invasive surgery: the STIFF-FLOP approach. Soft Robotics, , 1(2), 122-131.
Flores-Abad, A., Ma, O., Pham, K., & Ulrich, S. (2014). A review of space robotics technologies for on-orbit servicing. Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 68, 1-26.
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