AI and Robotics Insights with Emil Beloglavec

AI and Robotics Insights with Emil Beloglavec

In the latest episode of Open Forum in The Villages, Florida, host Mike Roth converses with Emil Beloglavec, a retired computer and AI expert with extensive experience in robotics. The discussion covers Emil's background, his work with companies like Stryker, and the role of AI in various industries. Key topics include the use of robots in medical surgeries, the impact of AI on job automation, and advancements in autonomous vehicles. Emil also discusses his upcoming course on AI and robotics, providing insights into the current state and future potential of robotic technology. Additionally, Dr. Craig Curtis offers tips on maintaining brain health through dietary changes. The episode emphasizes the significance of AI in improving business processes, developing better batteries, and the future of home robots.

00:00 Introduction to Open Forum in The Villages
00:34 Meet Emil Beloglavec: Robotics and AI Expert
02:45 AI and Robotics in the Workplace
06:14 The Future of AI and Robotics
13:56 AI in Battery Technology and Power Solutions
19:07 Robotics in Everyday Life
25:25 Conclusion and Listener Engagement

 Over the next several weeks, while I'm out of town, I've decided to release some reedited and improved versions of the  most popular shows in the series,  as well as some totally new episodes.  I hope you enjoy them.  I'll be back in mid-November with some new episodes

Have you heard about mature adults with Donna Hoover and Mike Roth? Yes. This is my second podcast and Donna and I are going to be addressing subjects which are significant for seniors, especially seniors living here in the villages.

The easiest way to hear the show is to look it up on Apple Podcasts. Look for mature adults with Donna and Mike. We'll be looking for you there. 

You can also find us on mature adults with Donna and Mike. All spelled out. Dot buzz sprout.com

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Transcript

AI in Robotics: Future Trends with Emil Beloglavec

[00:00:00] 

Delores: Welcome to Season seven of Open Forum in The Villages Florida. In this show, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live in and around the villages. We also talk to people who have information vital to seniors. You will get perspectives of what is happening in The Villages, Florida area.

We are a listener supported podcast. There will be shout outs for supporters.

Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in the Villages, Florida. I'm here today with Emil Beloglavec. Thanks for joining me, Emil. 

Emil, is a computer expert and an AI expert, especially in the area of robotics.

Emil, why don't you tell, our listeners, a little bit about your background in computers and robotics before you got here to The Villages. 

Emil Beloglavec: I'm retired for the past three years, but before [00:01:00] that I worked as my last company with Stryker. And there, I met a few people that worked on robotics.

Mike Roth: Okay. few people at Stryker, Yes, they're known for their medical technology devices. 

Emil Beloglavec: That's correct. And, they do, a piece of equipment that's being used in surgeries called Mako, where, this robot is assisting a surgeon to do either, corrections or full replacements of knees.

Hips and other joints. 

Mike Roth: That's similar to the Da Vinci robot 

Emil Beloglavec: Similar, but there's a big difference between the two robots. Our robot is for bones as opposed to the Vinci robot, which is used for soft tissues. 

Mike Roth: Ah, yes. Big difference there., How many years were you at Stryker 

Emil Beloglavec: I worked for Stryker Four years, but before that I worked for other big manufacturers [00:02:00] like Kellogg and earlier than that for Macia, which later on was bought by Pfizer. 

Mike Roth: And what motivated you, as a retiree to get immersed in the technology? 

Emil Beloglavec: Before I retired, I was asked to work on emerging technologies at Stryker, as an enterprise architect. once I had more time to spend on what really interest me, and one of these interest is also robotics.

I'm more like a theoretical person. I do research as far as, what these stores can do for us than actually building.

Mike Roth: Can you explore more of the place of AI and robotics in the workplace? it makes sense in the surgical workplace. We want exact, placement and cutting, or minimal cutting. How does [00:03:00] artificial intelligence fit into the workplace? 

Emil Beloglavec: The first place is in automation , we can use artificial intelligence to help automate all sorts of business processes, and that's where my interest and my role was initially with 

Stryker Manufacturing. 

Also in manufacturing, but more in finance, customer support. 

Mike Roth: there's been a story published recently that salesforce.com that had 9,000 people in customer support let 4,000 people go, to replace them with ai, using AI voice.

Do you think that's a good decision? 

Emil Beloglavec: I don't believe in these decisions, but unfortunately there's the other side of the story, that happened at the beginning of COVID. Lots of these big companies went on higher spree and hired a ton of [00:04:00] additional workforce, and now they're sharing this workforce, but they don't want to admit the actual reason.

So they blame AI for sharing the workforce that's not needed anymore. 

Mike Roth: So there's A mirror function going on there.

Emil Beloglavec: Of course, because Wall Street would not trust someone who would say, I made the mistake previously. 

Mike Roth: I see ai, replacing programmers, actual computer programmers.

I did a little experiment with our Mercedes Club to see if I could duplicate.

site that was being written by human beings . With a AI written site and, the look and feel of the AI site was much better. Also, we managed to generate the core of it only a couple of hours as opposed to six months.

 We don't know which one of those two, the AI version of the site or the. human coded section will actually go up. 

Emil Beloglavec: I [00:05:00] think AI at this point is really good in creating prototypes of solutions. 

Mm-hmm. 

The judgment is whether these can be properly personalized.

AI 

very helpful to create millions of lines of code, but whether this. Code is actually efficient. That's another question. 

Mike Roth: Yes, And there's always the question of hallucinations. I failed to tell the AI how old the club was and the AI decided it was 15 years old. When it was really only nine?

that was a little bit of a surprise. it also generated some other strange stuff we had to take out. 

I've heard that the solution to hallucinations in AIS is to give the AI the ability to say, I don't know. Instead of making something up.

Emil Beloglavec: This is still an open question, how to actually get rid of hallucinations.

The research is ongoing and. Things are improving. One of them is [00:06:00] so-called chain of thought, where AI is giving a chance to simulate thinking, but in a sense it's just iterating longer time before spitting out the end result. 

Mike Roth: Let's talk a little bit more about this course that you have coming up in October.

On AI robotics. Tell our listeners a little bit about that course. 

Emil Beloglavec: The idea of the course is to give the audience an overview about robotics, and it goes from the robotics that are being used for years already. 

Like cleaning robot, like rumba? 

Vacuums to the point that robots, will help elderly people, with their medication, resolving their problems with loneliness because the patience of a robot is immeasurable.

My Enrichment Academy Course, AI and Robots Understanding the [00:07:00] Future Happening Today. TEC 27 0 0 is a lecture on October 22nd and October 29th. 

Mike Roth: Now in the history of, robotics, I remember 15 years ago, I was introduced to artificial vision in manufacturing. a robot could see where the dots on an eight dot matrix printer where actually hitting the paper. Mm-hmm. I thought that was amazing.

but now we have robots that can actually correct for that. Problem they perceive. it seems to be going more and more intense in that, direction. 

Emil Beloglavec: Computer vision is actually, used in multiple areas. For example, in manufacturing, we did research on how to improve our quality assurance by using, 3D cameras.

One example that you gave earlier, we scan with a 3D or 2D camera, every label that's being [00:08:00] put on our product. And if the label is not according to the quality, it gets discarded. We also check the accuracy of implants that are being manufactured .

Mike Roth: Yeah. it's a terrible thing when I hear about, a hip implant needing to be replaced which it's being recalled. that happened to a client of mine. as we look at robotics today, what level would you say That we're at? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 

Emil Beloglavec: It depends what we're talking about. 

Mike Roth: Humanoid robot. 

Emil Beloglavec: Humanoid robot, human and robot, we are at the beginning, I would say maybe between one and two.

Mike Roth: Between one and two, yes. we see on the internet, pictures of Chinese robots having Olympic competitions or prize fighting. Do you think that's all, staged? 

Emil Beloglavec: That might not be all staged, but, I think they're still manipulated. They're not autonomous robots. 

You could see that these fights are being, [00:09:00] controlled choreographed, then controlled by, 

Mike Roth: Humans.

I noticed that a lot of the robots. seem to be very small. They're not full-sized humans. 

Emil Beloglavec: Right. 

Mike Roth: Well, like four foot six instead. of Five foot six. Okay. Scaled down. And some of the manual dexterity doesn't seem to be there. 

Emil Beloglavec: Yeah. They call these dexterity freedoms of movement.

They're by far not. All the freedoms of movement that humans have. 

Mike Roth: What do you think of the, newest, AI computer brought out by Nvidia? Designed for robots? It's Supposed to be a small, complex, compact computer, low power consumption that can do a lot. 

Emil Beloglavec: Those are specialized chips. If you think about, chips that are embedded into, robotaxis or self-driven cars where the actual decision has to be made in milliseconds, that's where these chips have [00:10:00] to be used.

The newest, chip promised, tenfold 

better performance than previous versions. 

Mike Roth: Tesla just lost a rather large, court action over a death in a Robocar, case. Do you think, Autonomous driving cars are really safe or going to become safe, 

Emil Beloglavec: They will. And what we need to take into consideration is that all the eyes are currently, right now concentrated on bad examples that happen.

And that same thing happened when cars showed up, about 120 years ago and replaced, 

horses. 

Mike Roth: And then a horse hit a cart and died. That was a big deal.

Emil Beloglavec: But everyone was afraid. 

We are all concerned about the edge cases. 

Mike Roth: Yes. But to me. you can't have a robotically driven car, without vision.

That goes beyond human sight.

it's [00:11:00] gotta be able to navigate in fog, rain, snow, sleet, or decide to stop. And apparently that programming isn't there with cars that are using all cameras. 

Emil Beloglavec: Yeah, that's a concern. I share there are two different schools of thought here. For example, Tesla puts all the eggs into the basket of, computer vision with cameras.

But Waymo uses radars 

and lidars. 

 according to some sources, Waymo is more advanced and. has better results than Tesla, 

especially in the conditions that you described. When it's snowing, when it's raining. 

Mike Roth: Yes. 

But way more has had accidents. 

Emil Beloglavec: Same problem.

Mike Roth: Okay. Let's talk about the case of, Boston Scientific. Yes. Those are the guys who had the, dancing dogs on, America's Got Talent and they did real well in the first round. Not so well on the second round. What do you think, Boston [00:12:00] Scientific is really developing there? 

Emil Beloglavec: Well, initially Boston Dynamics was developing robots, and I think that's still going on behind the scenes for the Army.

Purpose was to get. Industrial strength robot that could be employed on a battlefield. 

Mike Roth: Yes. But a battlefield robot can't be plugged in to be recharged easily. what kind of running time would a battlefield robot have today? 

Emil Beloglavec: To be honest, I don't know. 

Mike Roth: it seems that, to be moving around on a battlefield running, jumping. 

Even firing a weapon. and vision. it's gotta be burning a lot of electricity. 

Emil Beloglavec: And that's where the other problem comes in, where AI will help us 

Mm-hmm. 

And that is how to make better batteries. 

Mike Roth: Better batteries. 

Yes. 

Right. Okay. On that note, let's take a short break and listen to an Alzheimer's tip. From Dr. Craig Curtis. 

[00:13:00] Dr. Curtis, can you give, our patients a tip on keeping their brain healthy? 

Dr. Craig Curtis: Absolutely. My favorite tip is, involves a change in eating patterns, but it's not a drastic change. It's simply increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, other white meats, and lowering the amounts of red meat.

Sweetss and sugars, and also carbohydrates. It's essentially following a Mediterranean type diet plan. 

Warren: With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, CraigCurtisMD.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

Mike Roth: Thank you Dr. Curtis. We were talking about better batteries. How is AI going to come up with [00:14:00] better batteries when our engineers seem to be going so slowly?

It's pathetic. 

Emil Beloglavec: Well, I touched that problem at, Stryker 

Mike Roth: Really, 

Emil Beloglavec: Stryker's handheld tools used in surgeries have to use battery packs. 

So Stryker is buying batteries actually from various manufacturers, but we are trying to improve the end of life cycle of those batteries.

The battery pack has to be cleaned after each surgery. It has to go into autoclave where it is being heated up and we spray it with heavy chemicals to make sure that all the residues, all the fluids are being cleaned completely and that shortens the lifecycle of the battery.

Mike Roth: What kind of batteries was Stryker using lithium ion?

Emil Beloglavec: Lithium ion batteries. [00:15:00] Exactly. And Stryker playing around with changing the formula for the electrolyte to improve the lifecycle of the battery. And if you do that, then you have to test artificial intelligence. Is trying to, we're using artificial intelligence to predict how many times will be able to recharge this battery.

Charge and recharge and clean. 

Mike Roth: So the automobile manufacturers are going into what they call a solid state battery. Can you explain for our listeners what that means in layman's terms? 

Emil Beloglavec: In layman's terms, you are removing electrolyte out of the 

Mike Roth: Fluid. 

Emil Beloglavec: Fluid. Exactly. And in this way you are also removing a problem of overheating during the charge and in case of, malfunctioning of the barrier, removing the danger [00:16:00] of fire.

Mike Roth: Mm-hmm. 

Emil Beloglavec: ion batteries can. 

Mike Roth: I've seen films of them burn 

Emil Beloglavec: Burn, with high temperature. 

Mike Roth: That's why they have cooling systems when you're charging A car. are there any of these, solid state batteries that you think show a lot of promise? 

Emil Beloglavec: They do show a promise, but they're still in the research stage.

Not productionalized yet. 

Mike Roth: I thought General Motors was moving towards a, production. 

Emil Beloglavec: They all move towards it. 

Mike Roth: Okay. So AI in computer sense, uses a lot of power. We hear stories almost every week, whether it's Google or Facebook Wanting to put it in a gigantic data center and then they have to put in a nuclear power plant to power their data centers. It seems to be rather extreme. Power consumers. What's happening on the, power creation side and AI that would make some of these plants. Economically feasible 

Emil Beloglavec: Well, we're using AI to solve another [00:17:00] problem, which is instead of a standard, regular, nuclear energy.

To switch to the nuclear energy that's happening on the sun, and it's actually fusion energy. But the fusion energy hits a problem that if you wanna recreate fusion process on the earth, you have to deal with a hundred million degrees.

And nothing 

can hold a hundred million degrees. 

you do is.

You are trying to put that into a magnetic field and levitate plasma in a magnetic field without plasma ever touching the wall of the device. 

Mike Roth: Is that the thing they're doing in Switzerland? 

with the big cyclotron that's 26 miles long. 

Emil Beloglavec: What they're doing there is trying to understand the subatomic particles they spin, towards the Speed of light these particles and crash [00:18:00] them together and that forces the those particles to fall apart and create if you ever heard about God particle .

Mike Roth: God particle. 

Emil Beloglavec: That was years ago. announced theoretically and finally proven to exist in 2011, if I remember right.

Mm-hmm. 

Mike Roth: So, the nuclear power plants that they're talking about building for 

Google or Microsoft or Meta, those are all going to be the, Splitting of the atom type of plant as opposed to a fusion plant 

Emil Beloglavec: Yes. 

Mike Roth: they can't, 

Emil Beloglavec: All of these companies are also investing into research of fusion, but nothing is yet ready for production. 

Mike Roth: Mm-hmm.

Emil Beloglavec: In Europe, there's a project called IER 

Mike Roth: Spell

Emil Beloglavec: ITER.

A huge tomak, which is a shape of a donut. 

Mm-hmm.

Type of, fusion reactor. they're [00:19:00] planning to bring it online in 2035 to do additional research on fusion. 

Mike Roth: Now, relative to AI and robotics. If you were going to explain to your granddaughters, okay.

Or an audience of people who are 55 or older, some of the robotic jargon that were likely to hear over the next several months or years, could you do that? 

Emil Beloglavec: Well, I would say that robot is, a device that has a brain? The brain is artificial intelligence to help it decide what to do.

It has sensors with which it can see the environment around, but the brains, which is artificial intelligence, help decide what to do with that 

Mike Roth: Okay. So do these robots that are being developed also have. Sound sensors or ears.

Emil Beloglavec: They are adding additional sensors [00:20:00] for sound.

They're adding tactile type of sensors for 

touch. 

Mm-hmm. 

So you could see, for example, videos where a robot can crack an egg. 

Mike Roth: Mm-hmm. I've seen 

Emil Beloglavec: Mm-hmm. 

Mike Roth: I've seen robots that are supposedly folding laundry. and sheets. although they're folding the sheets, they're not folding them perfectly.

They're approximately, but they're not as good as a hotel maid might be. Yeah. Now, in, in the area of food preparation are there any advances being made in robotics there.

Emil Beloglavec: Right. robots are now already used in service industry. what I mean by that is they can deliver food .

Mike Roth: Yes. I've seen that. Like I've seen them come over and pick it up on a ship. But they pre-programmed paths. 

Emil Beloglavec: Right. But on the other hand, you could use robots in the same way as they're being used in, for example, warehouses. [00:21:00] Amazon uses millions of robots in their warehouses already, and they use artificial intelligence to pick and put away the stuff into the bin and they don't crash each other. 

Mike Roth: Now That's very good. They don't crash. but in the example that you brought up of Amazon, their robots are very specialized to work In their warehouses. Yeah. Where they know being a 1 22 is going to be in a specific.

Physical, place? Yes. What happens when the device or box that they're trying to put in that specific space doesn't fit? 

Emil Beloglavec: They get confused and have to get help from a human managing the section of the warehouse. 

Mike Roth: is that where SAP, that's the 

Emil Beloglavec: warehouse management software.

Mike Roth: Yes. 

Emil Beloglavec: Comes into play. 

Mike Roth: Yes. And they have every sku. size of the external box. And the barcode that's supposed to be on it. these [00:22:00] robots at Amazon can read the barcode on the boxes. So if a human being, put a unit in the wrong compartment and the robot pulled it out and it had the wrong barcode on, what would happen?

Emil Beloglavec: Yeah, I think at that point they have to have some sort of an exit procedure we call it, which is a solution for that type of 

Mike Roth: non-conformity. 

Emil Beloglavec: Yes. 

Mike Roth: Can you give our listeners a guess on when a viable robot for home use might be available and what uses that robot would have?

Emil Beloglavec: I would say then about five to 10 years we will be able to get a home robot and initially, I think they're going to be assisting person to get up from their chair to be able to remind. Okay, you need to take this sort of, medication. Did you take it? And so on and so forth. 

Mike Roth: Could the robot dispense medication?

Emil Beloglavec: [00:23:00] It depends how it's gonna be packaged, because all that has to be 

pre-programmed. 

or, 

understood by computer vision. 

Mike Roth: Okay? So you couldn't just pour a bottle of pills into a compartment on the robot and say. gimme one of these four times a day. 

Emil Beloglavec: That won't work.

Mike Roth: I had that problem with, some of the, vitamin supplements I was taking, last week. Two compartments spilled out at the same time, and two of the capsules were identical. They were white capsules with white stuff in them, and I didn't know which one was which, and which I was supposed to take one of, and, which I was supposed to take two of.

Emil Beloglavec: Yeah. 

Mike Roth: And you know what my solution was? Throw 'em both out. That's 

Yeah, I just was terribly confused. I didn't know what to do. now

as these robots come onto the marketplace, will we see a tremendous reduction in costs, 

Emil Beloglavec: We should. Because we're not gonna be able to afford a robot at current price.

For example, even a four-legged robot [00:24:00] made by, 

Boston. Mm-hmm. Cost at this point, at the minimum, $75,000. 

Mike Roth: Those robots that we're dancing on. 

Emil Beloglavec: The each one costs 

Mike Roth: Even The one that fell down, kind of died on stage. 

Emil Beloglavec: Even that one, and probably that was staged or pre-programmed 

Mike Roth: Yes. 'cause it got back 

Emil Beloglavec: more 

Mike Roth: Yeah. I love the way they painted them. So, before we go tell our listeners again, when your course is on robotics, 

Emil Beloglavec: The course will be on October 22nd. I'll split it into two sessions.

Each session is how long each session will be up to two hours, It all depends on the audience. 

It's meant to be more conversation than a lecture. 

My Enrichment Academy Course, AI and Robots Understanding the Future Happening Today. TEC 27 0 0 is a lecture on October 22nd and October [00:25:00] 29th.

Mike Roth: Conversational robotics With Emil, if they wanted to sign up. You gotta go into the Enrichment Academy catalog. go to the Enrichment Academy.org and you'll be able to find it or pick up the Enrichment Academy course catalog, which will be available middle of September. Yes. Emil, anything else you want to add? 

Emil Beloglavec: Thank you the opportunity. 

Mike Roth: Thanks for being with us today, Emil. 

Emil Beloglavec: Great.

Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth. Listeners, I'm thrilled to share with you this podcast, which is my passion project, to bring knowledge, inspiration, and things you need to know about the villages and the people living here. Be sure to hit the follow button to get the newest episode each week, or you can hit the purple supporter box.

Even a small donation of $3 to $10 a month makes a big difference. And you can cancel your subscription at any time. Your support means the world to us. [00:26:00] Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep those headphones on. Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9:00 AM Should you wanna become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike@rothvoice.com.

NANCY (2): This is a shout out for supporters. Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Duane Roemmich, and Dr. Craig Curtis at K two in the Villages. We will be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. The way our show grows is with your help.

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