Cooking robot that saves labor shortages, the key is in "AI utilization" -Teta Tetsuya Sawatori, CEO of Startup, which is talked about by startups.

This article is contributed by IBM BlueHub.The co -creation program "IBM BlueHub" with the startup has achieved many startups from the first term in 2014 to the present, achieving business alliance with major companies and raising funds from VCs.The 5th Demo Day will be held on March 18

Continuation from the last time.IBM BLUEHUB talks about each view on trends such as SaaS in the B2B area, focusing on mentors and graduates who participated in the program, with the "5th DEMO DAY" held on March 18.I did it.In the first half, we will mainly send market trends by venture capitalists, and in the second half of the startup technology trends in a relay format.

Featured tech part of the startup, CEO of the fourth Tradery, CEO, Kenji Koseki, is receiving the baton from Tetsuya Sawamoto, CEO of Connected Robotics (all bold questions are the author.)

In the series, we ask VCs about cloud business trends and startups about technical trends.Last time, the theme was a drone, but Mr. Sawato is working on a cooking robot.

Sawato: Yes, the first takoyaki robot "octochef" was introduced to Nagasaki Huis Ten Bosch last year.The combination of the collaboration robot that has become somewhat commodity and the "intelligence" technique by deep learning, and I have developed a robot arm controller software for about 10 years, and to develop cooking robot services by making use of that know -how.It is working.

What is the impact and value of such a cooking robot to society?

Sawato: We have three values: we have the theme of "innovating cooking with robots", solving the labor shortage of the restaurant industry, a global assist in Japanese food restaurants, and delivering freshly made food.

Then, the technical trend you are visiting, what is the theme that Mr. Sawato is paying attention to about robots.

Sawato: The important thing as a technical trend is the spread, evolution of collaborative robots, and modularization as hardware.Until a few years ago, a robot that costs 4 million yen to 5 million yen can now be purchased for 3 million yen to 2 million yen.In addition, various devices such as cameras and tactile sensors are now available at high performance and inexpensive.

As hardware becomes commodity, more and more important is software.In particular, the use of deep learning is becoming more important, but in particular, it is an important theme to use the edges and clouds properly to the construction and inference as each performance for engineering.ing.

Indeed, if you think about processing, it seems faster to do it with a robot alone, but if you consider the robot as a "service", you will need a cloud.It seems important to think about a robot as a business.Which one would you like to mention?

Sawato: We are paying attention to companies such as Sensin Robotics and Linkwiz in Japan to provide services that have added value and differentiation with software using commoditized robot hardware.

Overseas, the US Zume Pizza has innovated (pizza) delivery from both operations and user experiences by utilizing robots and trailers.

What Japan needs to promote these technical utilization

Sawato: What Japan needs to think about technical utilization is the overall optimization, not the local optimization of services and operations.

Specifically, for example, when using a robot or AI, it is often not successful if you consider it as a mere isolated tool.Of course, it is nothing more simple and easy to use, but for example, the cooking robot system we work on does not simply replace one of the kitchen work with a robot, but rationalizes the kitchen itself as a whole.I have to do it.

In the processing problem, the use of the cloud edges and the overall optimal were required, but it would be necessary to think of it as a business.

Sawato: You need to think about what you need while looking over the overall operations.In our case, it is necessary to cooperate not only with the food and beverage business operator to be introduced, but also with a partner who collaborates like a kitchen equipment manufacturer.

Thank you very much.We will hand the baton to the next startup