# Service Robots: Trends and Technology
## 3 Results
### Scientific Literature  
Due to the rapid advances in robot technology combined with AI, the creation and implementation of service robots in different industrial sectors have increased dramatically. Service robots can be in different forms; they can be virtual, chatbots, humanoids, and non-humanoids [61]. Thanks to the advances in robotics and the implementation of AI, machines can perform even more complex and repetitive tasks [59]. Some AI and natural language processing applications emerged as a COVID-19 response to protect and prevent further damage due to the health crisis that emerged in 2020. An example of this technology implementation is the Intelligent Voice Assistant for Coronavirus Disease Self-Assessment, a deployment that successfully merges natural language processing and cloud computing to create a virtual service robot that helps to diagnose symptoms related to COVID-19 [71]. The demand for service robots grew for the attention of social distancing and health-monitoring protocols due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, many industries have opted to include service robots as part of their staff to improve customer experience, service quality, and efficiency, as well as to reduce labor costs [72]. For example, service robots can provide more accurate services reducing mistakes and becoming more reliable and consistent than human employees. More importantly, robots can perform tasks without stopping, at a faster pace than humans, as well as carry multiple, repetitive, and mundane tasks without protesting [72]. Human-robot interaction is in constant development; the acceptance of service robots has flourished. To illustrate this idea, Figure 6 shows a prediction of the near future on the potential development of service robots. However, since it still is an early stage of development of the service robots, some groups of persons are open to their use, while others express concerns related to the negative consequences [61]. The recent and fast development of robotic technologies has inspired tourist corporations to adopt service robots. An excellent example of this is the service robot \"Pepper\". The benefits of this adoption were a noticeable increase in the customer's satisfaction, as well as creating a positive word-of-mouth [73]. For instance, medical robot assistants are being used to monitor patients and alert the medical staff when needed. Nowadays, the implementation of robotic medical assistants has increased due to the COVID-19 outbreak, resulting in a valuable and efficient way to monitor and control highly contagious diseases patients [74]. An exploratory study reveals that service robots are becoming a popular and more recurrent feature in tourism. This study suggests the tourism market perceives implementation of service robots as valuable, not only for interested technological visitors but also by an increasing number of customers [59]. Other studies have implemented service robots in restaurant companies to reduce work hours and improve service quality. The restaurant industry suffers from product losses constantly when the total demand exceeds the service production capacity. Results demonstrate the robots have reduced 20 work hours of the service staff, also improving labor productivity (sales per hour) and reducing  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Figure** & **Commercial Name** & **Developer** & **Classification** & **Application** \\  & Pepper [69] & SoftBank Robotics & Personal use—Multiple uses—Class 1 & and emotions is currently used in airports and schools to provide assistance. \\ \hline  
the losses dramatically due to lack of production; with the implementation of service robots, the service production sustained a higher and more efficient pace [75]. Current robotics applications will be covered in the next section. Moreover, we wondered about the terms associated with our search, so we constructed two different word clouds.