Service robots

Service robots: robotics that interacts with people

Service robots perform tasks in environments shared with humans (homes, hospitals, restaurants, retail floors, hotels) instead of in isolated industrial cells. The category overlaps with humanoid robotics: many humanoids are deployed as service robots, and many service robots are not humanoid.

Where service robots show up

Cleaning: autonomous floor scrubbers and vacuums (commercial and consumer)
Delivery: last-meter food, grocery and parcel delivery in offices and on streets
Hospitality: hotel concierge robots, restaurant runners, theme-park interaction
Healthcare: telepresence, lifting, medication delivery
Retail: shelf-scanning, customer guidance, inventory checks

Humanoid service robots

When a humanoid is sold to operate in a human environment instead of an automotive line, it becomes a service robot in deployment. Several vendors are explicitly positioning their humanoids for hospitality, retail and healthcare service work.