EMERGENCE OF ROBOTICS AS A SERVICE

Companies worldwide are now required to be agile in their customer service and development processes to compete in their sector due to the ongoing trend of digitisation, especially in the post pandemic era. Nowadays, firms must reconsider their strategy to meet the modern digital era as competitiveness demands efficiency in various activities. It is evident that the world needs a sustainable and automated solution that meets both the customer and the ownerstakeholder requirements.

One promising strategy for businesses to automate operations, manage work seamlessly, and reduce costs is to implement robots as a service (RaaS) model. The RaaS model is continuously gaining momentum within several organisations to combat operational challenges in the new era.

Automated machinery has always been one way to boost productivity and manage operations whenever human skills have been limited or unavailable onsite and in time.

Present day advanced robots are sufficiently intelligent to complete many well defined, repetitive manual tasks inside households, commercial establishments, large enterprises, and sprawling communities. Typical use cases for service robots include hospitality, cleaning, delivery, inspection, quality control, sanitisation, entertainment, security, across retail, , healthcare, logistics hubs, amongst others. Service robots are also designed by manufacturers with the primary function as collaborative, domestic, medical, entertainment, educational, amongst others.

However, service robots are seldom utilised around the clock and are significantly capital extensive. The robots must be programmed to recognise their physical parameters, the tasks they carry out daily, the owners, and the customers. These factors may have been limiting regional and global ramp-up.

Selected service providers like PROVEN Robotics in the GCC region have found a solution to this challenge through robotics as a service. RaaS offers a flexible alternative for small and medium enterprises considering employing robots but lacking the expertise or internal resources to maintain such robotic solutions. By renting robotic equipment and using a cloud-based subscription service, Robots as a Service enables a business to enjoy the advantages of robotic process automation.

A technical explanation provided by Wikipedia explains robotics as a service to be a cloud computing unit that facilitates integration of a robot and embedded devices into a cloud computing environment. In terms of service-oriented architecture, a RaaS unit includes services for performing functionality, a service directory for discovery and publishing, and service clients for user’s direct access.

RaaS is intriguing the interest of businesses because it is more flexible, scalable, and affordable than traditional robotics initiatives. Given how expensive robots are, it may be years before businesses see a return on their investment. This has discouraged many businesses from making robot investments. Small- and medium-sized firms can use robots and automation without making this initial investment thanks to RaaS. Additionally, it enables businesses to easily and quickly scale up or down in response to shifting customer and market demands. RaaS offers less initial start-up capital and more predictable costs.

The price of hardware has also decreased due to globalisation, and it is simple to sign up for and locate robust cloud computing systems that permit the inclusion of robots as a variable cost service with subscription plans. Additionally, since many businesses currently use the software as a service model, businesses are already at ease with the business model.

RaaS benefits numerous businesses across numerous industries. RaaS lowers the entry hurdle for other industries to test out and experiment with robotic solutions as they become aware of the uses for robots.

RaaS can be considered an extension of Industrial Internet of Things that deals with intelligent devices that have adequate computing capacity. RaaS is also a financial model for the purchase and use of a physical services robot. Through a RaaS purchase contract, the buyer is paying for the use of the physical device through a subscription-based contract. RaaS is different than a lease contract, since the regional service provider continues to own the robotic device and carries the machine as an asset on its books.