Latest / Talk Commerce / Commercial Robotics: Transforming Retail Operations with Marianela Nanninga of ToDo Robotics
Transcript
- Brent Peterson (00:02.144) Welcome to this episode of Talk Commerce. Today I have Marynella Naninga. Marynella, go ahead, do an introduction for yourself. the pronunciation of your name for me. Tell us your day-to-day role and something exciting you have going in business this year. Marianela Nanninga (00:18.22) Yes, hello. Thank you very much, Brent. As I say, my name is Marianela Naninja from To Do Robotics. And there are a lot of things coming into my work and the neck of the works in terms of technologies, AI, and a new way to see the world through the lenses of new visions, let's put it in this way. We are fresh of participation in NRS. F, a National Retail Federation event in New York, and it was quite an experience. We had the opportunity to introduce new products and new technology and some new applications. So yes, a lot of things going on. Brent Peterson (01:01.347) That's awesome. So Marianela, before we get started, you have volunteered to be part of the free joke project and all I'm going to do is tell you a joke and you just give me a rating 8 through 13. Then we're going to talk about robotics and AI and how all those things can benefit in the future. So here we go. A lady asked me if I would help her get a job as a professional Scrabble player. I put in a good word for her. Marianela Nanninga (01:32.301) I gave you a 10. Brent Peterson (01:35.213) Well, thank you. That's perfect. All right. Good. So tell us a little bit about your background and robotics and how that encompasses AI now. Marianela Nanninga (01:46.304) Yes, for more than 15 years I have been actually working in the area of technologies, business development for technology, consumer electronics, different on-site deployments, companies doing, selling to big box companies and retailers. My background is in technology. I love technology. I always like technology. And I had the opportunity actually in this role to travel extensively in Asia. And around, I don't know, 10 years ago, was in North, South Korea, Seoul. And I saw for the first time a robot. I was in a restaurant. It was bringing me a... my food. It was a very tiny thing and no working very well, but it was so funny. And I look at that and I said, here we are. That's what I want to do in the future. I want to sell robots, but real robots. I thought that was entertaining and fun, but it was super slow. So I said, do I still know that into the market? Of course, for the American public, I knew already that was way too far away. And, you know, but that remains in my mind. Past the years and in 2020, I was in CBS, the big show in Las Vegas, and consumer electronics shows. I was there and for the first time, I a robot that had the different kind of application. Remember that robotics had been in the industry, the industrial and... and a manufacturer level for almost 40 years. So it's really new. What is new is actually is the application for commercial purposes and the idea that now you can have devices that can help you literally your lives in your small world. Let's put it in this way, doing a specific task. So. Marianela Nanninga (03:49.149) That were actually, I fell in love with the robot, with the robots per se, and then I contacted that company, initiated the conversation, but know, long story short, COVID started. honestly, everything was put on hold like the rest of the world. But two years later, I had the opportunity of being hired as a business development director for another company that gave me in some way carte blanche and say, hey. Would you like to develop a couple of new projects for us? And I said, yes, I had something in mind. So I presented multiple projects. They actually select this one and a couple of them. And among them, this was this one. And I had my first amount of money to actually put it and buy robots and test the robots, learn how to deploy the robots, put the robots in real operations in restaurants. see really the reaction of the customers, of the owners, what were the shortcomings. And we actually had, it was a great experience, really hands-on. We actually bought multiple robots, deploy, I learned how to deploy multiple robots. And that experience, after eight months, I came out and say, we're ready to roll into the market. And I prepared. all my documents, go to market, marketing plan, sales plan, projections, name it. We did it, presented it to the board and the board say no. Ta-da! My heart was broken. And actually, my cell, was really, you know, when you put the heart in something that you said, that's my call, but I didn't know how to really do it. It took me another two months to finally get the decision. I was very bummed and then at a certain point somebody told me, like, let me understand. How many people in that whole company know how to deploy the robots? They say, only me. How many people had sold the robots? Only me. How many people work in the business plan, projection, et cetera? Only me. They say, so you had your answer. You are the company. I was the company, but I need somebody that shake my head. And he worked. Marianela Nanninga (06:04.582) Three years later, I'm here. I decide actually to say, know what? I get my notice to the company and open my own company. Contact the manufacturer, explain the situation and say, I'm going to do it by myself. And honestly, at the beginning, I think that they were very doubting this crazy Latina lady from Atlanta is going to do what by herself? It is a woman. It's Latin. What do you know about robots? See, I had a little bit of experience. I had put already like a three robots and say, but I can learn. Actually, they were very nice. Send the engineers. I actually did the training when we then start to sell. Long story short, 250 robots later, here I am. Brent Peterson (06:51.999) Yeah, that's a, that's a incredible story. and it goes, it really goes to show how entrepreneurs can change the landscape and see beyond what a board would see and what a group of people, even in a company can see. You know, my experience has been with, with handwriting. know that a lot of companies now use robots to handwritten notes and they, they just have a, like a pen and a plotter that will handwrite notes. But so tell us your application for robots and tell us how it's really made an impact. Marianela Nanninga (07:27.726) Yes, well, we currently actually had different lines of robots that we distribute. We had what we call it the server robots that are the ones that actually bring in things from one place to another. So the most popular that you see right now in the market is our model that is called Bellabot. The manufacturer is called Poodle Robotics and Bellabot is actually working... pretty steady in restaurants. Actually, most of the restaurant is used to actually, like the runner, bring the food from the back of the house to each one of the table. It's actually doing it on time, without hiccups, without making mistakes. So she is very, very reliable. She's used also in other places to bring, for instance, drinks. in some, for instance, a lot of Mexican place use the robot to bring the chips. They call it in Spanish the chipera because it means she's the one in charge of the chips in every table. this is the interesting about the technology is that at the end of the day, it's a robot. It's a device that is up to the programmer, the installer, to help to actually the operations inside what the restaurant is doing. So it is a support. is not taking over, and this is very important to understand. It's not really taking over the waiter. You still need the waiter to place the orders. You still the waiter to actually order all the things. What it helps is actually it helps the waiter because now instead the waiter to go back and forth, back and forth, the waiter can't stay in his location and actually is the robot going back and forth and back and forth. So it is, most of the time in the restaurants when we put the robot, you know, at the beginning, every waiter, when we show up, it's like, my God, here we are, my replacement. But shortly there are the first ones to say, thank you very much. Especially restaurants that actually carry, for instance, plates that are very heavy. I had one of the, I mean. Marianela Nanninga (09:35.94) lot of Mexican restaurants and they used to have this place, these things, big dishes, very heavy called Malkahete, super heavy. And now when the, is the robot bringing the Malkahetes, all the waiters, thanks God. My back is saying thank you. Same thing in the cleaning industry. We had cleaning robots, mean like vacuum cleaning robots, scrubber robots, but commercial level. imagine like a... mega super Roomba on asteroids that actually can do I don't know 20,000 square feet per hour and is able to actually very precise do the cleaning then be very precise very so that job actually is not that is taking the job of the person the operator that normally see you doing no no no that operator operator is still the operator of the machine. And while the machine is actually cleaning, doing the back and forth cleaning the area, that person is actually concentrating cleaning the rest of the things that had to be cleaned, like at the baseboards, handles, windows, etc. So in areas where there is actually heavy repetitive jobs, this robot really gives an incredible hand and it's actually become like the assistant, personal assistant of the operators. Brent Peterson (10:56.225) Yeah, I that's such a great analogy. And I heard a similar analogy on power tools. And we used to have a drill, you'd have to hand crank a drill to make a hole. And then suddenly they had a drill that has a motor in it. And it's the same principle where it's enabling people to do their jobs better. And it's enabling craftspeople to make their craft better. And it's enabling, like you said, workers to do maybe less redundant tasks and to do tasks that are more important or better. where it requires the human to do it. And I guess one other comment is that it allows business owners to also hire a more skilled workforce and have a more consistent workforce, right? Because they know some of these harder tasks that maybe some people aren't gonna do are gonna get done. Marianela Nanninga (11:42.335) Absolutely. In jobs and industries where there is a very high turnover, remember, it costs a lot of time to find somebody to do the job, but also to train that person. And even when you train that person, it's not given that that person actually will be doing all the time the job at the same level. One of the things that actually the advantage of the machine, let's put it that the cleaning robots, is that because it's a machine, it's always doing the same. intensity when it's cleaning. It's not that this cleaning a little bit good in the corner in the right and the left eye, forgot that part. No, it's not forgetting any spaces because actually it has a rudder. You have a line that is telling exactly where it is, what I'm missing, what I'm not missing, I covered this area or not, but also the intensity and the quality of the cleaning because always the pressure is the same, the amount of water is the same. always the revolutions in the roles are the same. you actually, and all these parameters are settings that you can fine tune, but allows you to have the security that the spaces are clean, are clean in the same way. the consistency and the quality of the cleaning is always good. What means, and that translation. or actually is a customer experience for the end customer is a better customer experience. Brent Peterson (13:07.681) Yeah. So tell us some of the other ideas that you have and introducing robots into the U S market. And I know that you had mentioned earlier that maybe Korea, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan would be ahead of the U S and some of these areas. Tell us some of the other ideas that you have. Marianela Nanninga (13:24.959) Absolutely. We're right now actually testing a couple of new robots. One of them is, I call it the cooking robot, but actually more than cooking robot, it's more like a cooking system. So imagine like a walk, an automatic walk that you actually train the recipes, the chef can train the robot and the recipe in terms of time of cooking, length of the ingredients, the flavors. the liquids like salt, pepper. So the robot still needs somebody to put the main ingredients. Let's put it that you are doing chicken, the robot with vegetables. The robot will ask, please pull the vegetables. But actually internally the robot will dispense and see exactly what temperature. what amount of oil, what amount of salt, what amount of any kind of condiments and sauces will be put into the recipe, the cooking time, the number of times that you have to actually stir the food. So what it gives actually is consistency in the flavor of the food. that chicken, because initially that recipe will be trained by the original chef. The robot is like a memorize, it is step by step with the ingredients, with the time of cooking, with the revolutions, et cetera. So every time the food will be in the same flavor. So that is actually very good for institutional kitchen. So we're talking about schools, we're talking about big cafeterias, areas that actually have a very big. number of repetitive food that is always more or less the same. Marianela Nanninga (15:18.422) consistency and flavor. We also had robots actually going into the senior living facilities where the robots actually will go and make company and do the rounds in the senior living facilities to ensure the well-being of each one of the guests, but also to actually connect with them and do like a telemedicine visits with your doctors as well. Brent Peterson (15:23.937) Yeah, so I think. Brent Peterson (15:49.635) Yeah, I remember during the pandemic, that was one of the things that they really talked a lot. It's a telemedicine and having a iPad on the, on the end of a robot that kind of goes around from room to room. Yeah. Do you see then more of a shift that the commercial aspect is where it's really developed and it comes down to the consumer or do you see it going the other way? Like I robot or the little robot vacuums are. Marianela Nanninga (15:56.03) Yes, exactly. Exactly. Brent Peterson (16:14.517) you know, initially were such a big thing and then now they've really come into the commercial spot. Is it a mixture of how technologies will move between commercial and consumer? Marianela Nanninga (16:25.228) I see both tendencies. be honest, mean, you put up a fantastic example of the AI robot and the Roomba. One of the easy things for me to actually, easy and relative, but that is easy to understand the concept of a cleaning robot is thanks to Roomba. Because as I said, even when I explain, the only thing that I have to say is like a maxi Roomba in a steroid. It's big like that, but it's identical to the Roomba. the people immediately know what I'm talking about. And also the perception. I don't know why, but that idea of a device that clean, that is autonomous, it actually is very intelligent, is doing the mapping, have a light that had sensors, all the things. It gives the idea, just like, well, it's not really so, you know, it's not so intimidating. I think that that is one side that I saw where actually I see that way coming with other devices. At the other side, we actually are developing a, there is a risk to the market to go into the extreme where right now that in the last eight months, there are nine in the industry, more than 25 different humanoids launched into the market for different brands from the Optimus, from Tesla, from Pudu, from... Name it, Unitree. Everybody's coming out with the new models of human noise and everybody, my God, they are taking over. No. They are not taking over. Number one, all this human noise, what this is the people don't realize, are sold right now pretty much empty. They are actually without software. R &D operations that actually are developing right now, because honestly, in the future, there are some tasks that definitely the human nodes could be done risky tasks, tasks that actually that are repetitive, that have involved some kind of danger for the people that is doing it, that those robots will be able to do it. But actually to arrive to that point that is actually the robot can do it, is take a lot of R &D in software. Marianela Nanninga (18:40.73) So it is, it will take a little bit long for us to see immediately. But now, because the people see an Optimus Elon Musk calling into the market, it's coming back out in two months for $30,000. I cannot tell you how many people had called me, my God, you're gonna be selling the Optimus. No, and nobody's gonna be selling the Optimus in three months, by the way. We're still waiting for the robot taxi that he announced in 2017. And now they're saying maybe in June, they're gonna come out with a proof of content and a test in Austin, Texas. So, technology, takes time to really arrive to the point that actually it will have the benefits. in the way that we perceive as a regular people. Now, there are applications in commercial side that actually definitely could benefit to have the robotics and the robots in different forms, automate or humanoid that actually will help the day-to-day operations. Brent Peterson (19:49.379) We have a few minutes left, but what is your predictions this year for robots that are will be into production or that have already gone through that long phase of R &D that are ready to go live? Marianela Nanninga (20:04.519) A couple of things that actually are believed that I'm getting into mature applications. And then when I say mature, the applications are being mature. So there are a couple of robots, including the unit trees coming out with specific applications into the market, rather than selling the robot per se. In terms of per se applications, other companies that are, put it, robots. to really work. is Timmy from another company, it's called Temi Robotics, they have the small robot that I told you that actually it was the one developing the telemedicine, the teledoc, but now we are developing, they are developing more applications that actually could be used in that robot. So imagine that robot working, for instance, in a hotel. Welcome the people in the hotel. In the same, who do robotics? We had one of the units that actually, the last one, Bellabot Pro, that actually we developed with the manufacturer, a new application that actually greet the people, in the, in the retail store, greet the people at the entrance, give information about the product, but also offer you to bring you to directly where the product is. So imagine, I don't know, at the entrance of Home Depot, you say, welcome to Home Depot. I can help you and say I want a hammer. Okay, I had all this type of hammer, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then which hammer do you want? Say, well, I want the hammer of 16 costas. Okay, perfect. Follow me. I will bring you. The robot physically actually escort you where the location and they say, okay, the hammer is in the bin number three. So can I help you with something else? And if it's not, okay, thank you. Have a good day and go back. So this is already exist, the technology already exist, but still, you will see more companies actually trying to test these applications really in real life. There is a curve, the same thing that we saw in the restaurant, there is a curve that the people had to adapt. Marianela Nanninga (22:15.213) to actually to be the presence of the robot. Get that initial phase, know, get us like, okay, what the robot is going to do for me, it's talking to me. And also the other side from the developing start point, we are actually how much you want really the robot to have AI, for instance. We tested that the funny thing is that we realized it's like, I don't want the robot have to complete AI. We try to limit the language to instead of LLM, so large language to... SLM so it's more language to say okay you're gonna talk about this product and even with SLM it's still too much because then what you have you have a chatty salesperson that is saying yes because blah blah blah and you're like okay come on no so they had we had to find the balance do you want really the application of all the eyes or do you want to actually write a very very intelligent algorithm to follow There is no answer, but we're trying. Brent Peterson (23:18.359) Yeah, that's great. That's a lot of fun things coming out in the future. So Marianela, we have a few minutes left. And as I close out the podcast, I gave everybody a chance to do a shameless plug about anything they want. What would you like to promote or plug today? Marianela Nanninga (23:32.915) Well, more than actually promoting, this is direct in direct promotion, is the fact that there is in the work of robotics and commercial application for robotics, there is a lot of misunderstanding and, you know, it's a new field. more than anything, I will like to have the opportunity to educate a little bit the people and tell them that, you know, Having all these robots and open their mind to actually consider the robots to do basic applications, basic tasks during your operations actually have an incredible advantage. So either is the brands that I represent, Poodle Robotics, Gaussian Robotics, Sparkos, Zyko, and I represent five different brands. chance that you give to this robot and test it in person to see, you will see the benefits. There has been a lot of talks in the market, it's taking over the world, everybody's going to remain without jobs. No. We are actually in a process where actually of very interesting change in the labor force. Every person... that we are teaching and in every operations that we actually install the cleaning robots, for instance, we had to actually teach the operators and train the operators and we are re-qualifying these people. And actually it's a beautiful side effect of the whole thing when you have a lady that was a housekeeper of her life telling me, I feel right now so proud of what I'm doing. I'm going to tell my kids. now I'm a robot operator. As a matter of fact, they are becoming robot operators. So, you know, every change is not as negative as the people said. So besides to actually the benefits that bring to the operations, it also brings benefits to the operators and to the people that are involved in the industry. Brent Peterson (25:45.123) Yeah, and makes our life better. Perfect. Marianella, Marianella Neninga, the CEO and founder of Todo Robots or Toto. You tell us robotics. Sorry, sorry. Todo robotics, not totos, not everything, right? Marianela Nanninga (25:46.885) Yes. Marianela Nanninga (25:54.598) Robotics, to do robotics. Marianela Nanninga (26:00.638) But actually it's on purpose. The name, actually I it also on purpose because to do is for the action to realize something, but in Spanish means todo, that means everything. Brent Peterson (26:14.323) Everything. Perfect. Thank you so much for being here. It's been such a pleasurable conversation. Marianela Nanninga (26:20.222) Thank you very much for the invite and it really was my pleasure.