Balancing hotel robotics with safety

Guest experience is quickly becoming an increasingly important factor in the hotel world, with decisions being made on where to stay based on service and reliability.  To aid with this, service robots are being introduced.  But, while hoteliers are open to adopting new technologies to enhance guest experience, safety devices are often neglected.

Ultralife Corporation balances its focus between developing new battery technology for hotel robotics with expanding its range for smoke alarms (hotel managers should try to balance their management/maintenance focus between both types of device).

Hotel robot batteries

In 2018, the first robotic hotel concierge was put to use in Italy.  Named Robby Pepper, it was designed to speak four languages, interact with guests and function just as a human concierge would.  Due to Robby’s popularity, service robots have quickly become a major selling point for hotels, to the extent that customers could feel disappointed if these robots lost power and were unable to operate during their stay.

Ultralife (and other companies in the Ultralife group, including UK battery manufacturer Accutronics Ltd) have a long-standing history of designing, manufacturing and distributing Lithium Iron Phosphate and Lithium-ion batteries for military and medical applications where power failure is not an option.  This reliability is built into its robotics (and smoke alarm) batteries too.

Do not forget smoke alarm batteries

However, alongside the introduction of these new robotics batteries, Ultralife never lost focus on improving smoke alarm batteries.

As smoke alarms are a vital, legal requirement in hotels; Ultralife recognized that powering them is a key priority that hotel managers have to face and, with improvements in battery technology, many smoke alarms can now utilize 3 volt CR123A cells instead of the traditional 9 volt.

Therefore, Ultralife is now continually focusing on expanding its range of CR123A cells.  Built in the same way as the Ultralife Lithium 9V battery, they are known for being robust, reliable and rigorously tested.

According to the NFPA, one in 13 hotels or motels reports a structural fire each year.  While working smoke alarms won’t eliminate this statistic, they should help to lower it.

By using the latest battery technology, hotel smoke alarms and robots can be powered more reliably, ticking both entertainment and safety off the checklist.  And who knows, maybe one day service robots will be the ones checking and replacing hotel smoke alarm batteries?