The robot revolution is upon us, and they are ready to serve.
While many are wary about whether robots and humans can coexist, Japanese robots are coming in peace by entering the service industry to tuck you in at night and bring you the morning paper.
Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park in Japan, announced its plan to open a hotel that will be run entirely by robots. Staffed by robots and loaded with other advanced technologies, the two-story hotel with 72 rooms will be called Henn-na Hotel, which translates to "Strange Hotel."
Annoyed when you only get a robot instead of a live representative? Don't worry, vacationers, the Strange Hotel's robots will be capable of intelligent conversations. Henn-na Hotel will open with three "actroids," which are robots that look like humans that will serve as receptionists.
As soon as you step foot into the hotel, porter robots will help you with your bags, the actroids will assist you at the front desk and service robots will clean your room.
To enter your room, the high-tech hotel will use facial-recognition instead of room keys, so you won't have to worry about locking yourself out. When in need of something, guests will be able to make requests via tablets.
Other low-cost amenities include a radiation panel that detects body heat to adjust the temperature in place of air-conditioning. The hotel will also use solar power and other energy-saving, cost effective features.
Letting robots run the hotel will help reduce costs, the theme park says. "We will make the most efficient hotel in the world," says company President Hideo Sawada. "In the future, we'd like to have more than 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots."
The futuristic hotel will open for guests on July 12, starting at $59, or 7,000, yen per night and go up to $119 or 14,000 yen. Another 72 rooms will be added Henn-na Hotel the following year.
