“We are facing a paradigm shift which will change the way we live and work. The pace of disruptive technological innovation has gone from linear to parabolic in recent years. Penetration of robots and artificial intelligence has hit every industry sector, and has become an integral part of our daily life.”

Brave words indeed but ones in which Thavida Maneewan, a lecturer at the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi Institute of FIeld roBOtics (Fibo) firmly believes.

Thavida quoted this excerpt from an article published by Merrill Lynch, the wealth management division of Bank of America, to underscore her conviction that robots will soon play a major role in daily life as society responds to a greying population and growing urbanisation.

Such changes, she told a fascinated audience during a talk marking the institute’s 20th anniversary, will inevitably need to a demand for robots to facilitate our special needs, as artificial intelligence that works is much more effective than the human mind. Thailand, of course, is no exception.

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“Today robots are mainly used in the industrial sector for automobile assembly and the like but the technology is expanding and they will become an integral part of our daily lives,” she says.

While recognising the very human concern that entire careers will be replaced by AI and robots, Thavida is quick to stress that robots will replace humans in a few, mostly traditional areas, but on the positive side will create a new kind of workflow.

She is used to negative reactions having been mildly ridiculed by the press for her own invention, the “Climbing Coconut Tree Robot”, which has yet to appear in its final form. Reporters, she recalls, asked her whether she wanted to bring in a robot to compete with monkeys in climbing coconut trees.

But she is in fact answering a real need. Coconut-based enterprises, it seems, are facing real problems in getting the coconuts down from the trees due to a lack of skilled labourers and well-trained monkeys.

For his part, lecturer Prakarnkiat Youngkong is aiming to create the Thai massage robot. The idea popped into his mind when he discovered that if someone wanted a massage to ease painful muscles or tendons late at night, they were unlikely to find an available trained masseur.

“The massage robot will fill the gap and at the same time it doesn’t replace the human’s job,” says Prakarnkiat who specialises in tools and automation systems for the medical industry.

But while there might be a case for robot engineering creating jobs, most people regard the openings as small compared to other engineering careers. Part of the reason for this is that Thais tend to think of robots either as humanoid or animal-like toys. Robot engineering is actually far more complex, covering such automated systems as robotic arms for use in factories and diagnostic and therapeutic tools for the medical field.

House robots are also becoming more active – think of the vacuum robots that do such a good job in cleaning the house.

Fibo’s anniversary celebrations also included a showcase of the products the institute has come up with over the years, ranging from the industrial robotic arm to medical tools. The latter category includes the sensible tab, which helps stroke victims exercise their arm muscles while simultaneously collecting and evaluating data, the tailgate, a walking analysis for patients, and a dog wheelchair that help dogs to sit and stand.

Prakarnkiat says that robotic engineering can be applied to serve local needs and there is no need to become involved in such high-end machinery as the robotic surgical system Da Vinci.

“If a hospital requires such a high-end robot, then it’s better to import it, as the technology requires a very high investment in research and development. Besides our market is too small to make it profitable,” he says.

His latest product is a medication-dispensing machine for Chulalongkorn Hospital. Imported from Europe and the US, these automated dispensing machines are available in private hospitals here but they are not the answer for public hospitals and clinics.

“The imported machines are expensive and pharmacists need to adapt themselves to the system if it is going to work properly. Our machine is the opposite. Its work is based on what the pharmacists need,” he says.

“Saving time in public hospitals is one of the critical areas in which robotic technology can help. The dispensing machine allows the pharmacists to complete three prescriptions in one minute and that means patients don’t wait too long to receive their medication.”

The machine also solves the problem of drug loss within the system, sometimes through theft, other times through contamination, which is costing the Ministry of Public Health millions of baht every year. The dispenser allows the drugs to go directly to the pharmacists who will give it to patients.

Prakarnkiat is now working on adding more intelligence such as the ability to mix drugs within one prescription.

Thavida adds that there are four simple steps to creating a robot. “You start by making the robot of your dreams and then build a reliable platform to confirm that the robot can work precisely and repeatedly. You then improve the design through field testing and when you are satisfied, you unleash the robot into the real world,” she explains.

“And you should never give up trying despite complains and criticism from others. We have to experiment to see what’s right or wrong and always remember that the first robot will never work as intended.

“If we give up then our robot will never be finished,” she says.