Speaking with ZDNet, Vogels elaborated on what it takes to build a “truly smart” robot. “I think it starts with being able to collect data that you have, that understands what’s happening,” he said. “Just having the data about, let’s say, the whole production line that you’re trying to introduce robots into.” With the right data, Vogels said, manufacturers can forgo common but potentially costly practices, such as “stopping the line” when a defect is spotted. “If you have to rebuild your robot because you have the next generation of your car coming, that’s a very expensive operation,” he said. But if robots are more configurable and more adaptable to some of the software that you load onto them, they have more capabilities. You can also immediately address a defect that is happening. And I think that is a very important part of modern robotics, having them be adaptive." CDM, Vogels pointed out, also demonstrates that a “better robot” doesn’t necessarily look dramatically different from its predecessors. “The whole digital-physical world is massively changing, and it’s not just in our fulfillment centers or in manufacturing environments,” he said. “If you look at the new Audi, for example, I think it has 1,200 sensors in it. If you have a Tesla, you understand that this is a computer on wheels – but the new Audi looks just like the old Audis. They’re not fancier; they look just as conservative. However, they are computers on wheels, and people that actually use these Audis don’t think they’re sitting in something that is actually just as advanced as Telas because the magic happens behind the scenes.”
