Robot waiters create new jobs for disabled robot pilots
By Erik Korsvik Østergaard, 28. December 2021.
Robot waiters are a new – and price winning – example of how technology can create possibilities:
“Tokyo-based DAWN, or Diverse Avatar Working Network, is a cafe staffed by robots operated remotely by people with severe physical disabilities like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The operators, referred to as ‘pilots’, can control the robots from home — from a wheelchair or bed — by mouse, tablet, or a gaze-controlled remote.”
Apart from the great idea and the solution to an increasing challenge in the workforce in Japan (“a quarter of the population is unable to work due to physical disability, mental illness, or age”), this also develops our understanding of what “disabled” is – and means: The line between “disabled” and “able-bodied” has become blurred.
