Hospitality Robotics: Analysing And Predicting Impact Via Interaction Diagrams

Abstract

Two of the most pressing issues in hospitality are personnel shortages and high employee turnover. Because of this, the industry looks at robotics as a means to take over tasks, thereby reducing the number of human employees necessary to run a hotel. However, the amount of tasks that can easily be automated is limited. At the same time, it is difficult to design new automated solutions, because the research on the subject of hospitality robotics is disjointed. In this article, an interaction framework is presented that illustrates which interactions are at play when robots take over tasks in hotels and restaurants. A case study is used to illustrate how easily things can go awry and how critical correct implementation is for getting robotics to work properly. For successful implementation of robotic solutions in hospitality, knowledge from different fields needs to be combined along with physical tests of robots in representative environments with consideration of the different stakeholders.