Meet Bob. The Singaporean robot that helps Dyson engineers analyse sound
Singapore is at the forefront of manufacturing. It is an industry that accounts for 20 percent of the country’s GDP and employs over 400,000 people.
According to a study by McKinsey & Company, approximately 24 percent of workers could be displaced by 2030. This is part of a decade long process which has seen a shift away from costly, labour intensive manufacturing. But in Dyson’s Singapore Technology Centre at least one team member appears to be unfazed.
A nearly-human shaped figure wearing a large pair of headphones sits on a chair in the middle of Dyson’s semi- anechoic chamber — a room designed to be echo-less.
His name is Bob. In the words of his colleagues, his appearance is ‘a little unnerving.’ He sports a jet black pair of Delevingne-ian eyebrows and a matching moustache and sideburns, which all sit uncomfortably against his china-white complexion.
Of course, Bob isn’t the typical “job-stealing machine”. He’s about as low-tech as things get at Dyson. He’s a mannequin and his sole function is to wear a pair of headphones. The acoustic engineers decided to draw on his facial hair to humanise him.
Nicklaus Yu, an acoustics and vibration engineer in Singapore works with Bob. In fact, Bob now does a very important part of his job — something which Nicklaus is actually rather happy about. The fact that Nicklaus keeps Bob stuffed under his desk each night doesn’t appear to be out of spite.
‘When we first started out, I did actually sit in there,’ Nicklaus explains pointing at Dyson’s futuristic, foam lined semi-anechoic chamber. Anechoic chambers are designed to baffle the reflection of sound waves. They do this by lining a room using vibration absorbing materials like foam. Once the room is sealed, there’s virtually no background noise and any sounds you hear become concentrated. The effect can be quite unsettling.
‘I’d be in there for three hours at a time just listening to the machines. It wasn’t sustainable,’ Nicklaus says.
‘Bob’s blank expression might make it seem like he isn’t listening, but it’s actually what he does best.’
Nicklaus’ human ears have been replaced by a Bob’s keener ones. For more than 40 hours a week, Bob tests the sounds machines make. Using a pair of headphones, which have been externally covered with highly sensitive microphones, Bob can detect the smallest soundwaves.
To demonstrate Bob’s auditory abilities, Bob is put in a dark room with an electrical fan three feet in front of him. The headphones are placed on his head and then the door to the chamber is closed, sealing the room and preventing any external noise from entering the room during the test.
Sitting at a console outside the room, sound engineers can watch a live stream video of the chamber’s interior, while another screen displays the sonographic readings — which represent soundwaves. ‘Being able to obtain clean readings on the acoustic performance of machines is really important. A normal human being has the potential to emit a lot of sound, like breathing, a heartbeat or even a churning stomach. Bob gives us none of those complications.’
Bob’s aptitude for sitting perfectly still and making no noise makes him perfect, but does Nicklaus feel threatened by the possibility that his mannequin colleague might one day take over his job altogether?
He smiles. ‘I don’t quite fancy sitting in there for long periods of time, so that’s one aspect of the job I’d gladly give to him. Besides, while he’s in there you still need someone to be out here recording and analysing the sound.’
‘We look at how vibrations from a source, in this case Dyson machines, are transmitted through the air to reach a listener. It’s particularly important because lots of Dyson machines use high-powered motors that can rotate at up to 110,000 revolutions per minute (rpm).’
The field of acoustics, it seems, goes far beyond just loudness. ‘Based on what we capture and hear, we also analyse aspects of the sound like tone. This helps us identify potentially annoying frequencies that can be flagged to the design and motor engineers. We also try to work with them to help identify the source, and to manage it,’ he adds.
However, Nicklaus does concede that Bob could be upgraded more upon how he could give Bob an upgrade beyond the cosmetic improvement of facial hair. ‘If I could, I would give Bob limbs, so he can walk himself into the chamber. It’d be great if he was smart and independent too, so he can set himself at just the right position for our tests.’
Bob isn’t an isolated example either. In workplaces around the world, robots are being employed to supplement, enhance, or even replace their human counterparts.
According to Professor Bart Selman from Cornell University, there is ‘rapid progress’ in artificial intelligence (AI), whether it is in the way machines walk, talk, listen or think. ‘To reach human-level performance on all of them will be about 25 to 30 years out,’ he says.
Professor Selman believes that concerns about robots “taking” jobs are justified. And it is not just jobs involving physical labour that will be automated.
‘Much routine non-physical work will be automated, including knowledge-based jobs and activities such as medical diagnosis and all levels of administrative and organizational work.’
But there are also many benefits to utilising an automated workforce.
‘There will remain a need for humans to be involved at many levels,’ Professor Selman adds. ‘The reality however, is that an AI-powered system will be able to handle work previously done by dozens of people.’ This offers the possibility that humans could soon enjoy more efficient workplaces where machines eliminate productivity draining tasks.
Bob couldn’t be further from intelligence, artificial or not. But given the rapid rate of innovation in tech hubs like Singapore, he could soon be asking to sit at a desk, rather than being stuffed underneath one.
What is a semi-anechoic chamber?
- The walls of the chamber are covered in foam wedges that are about 82.5cm thick, which is a quarter of the longest wavelength, and make sure sound waves won’t be reflected. The ability to prevent reflection of sound is what makes the chamber “anechoic” — or echo-less. We use this anechoic characteristic to review our machine acoustics without any background noise interference.
- 10 microphones are placed in a hemispherical (half a sphere) arrangement. We place whatever device we want to test in the centre of this hemisphere. By using this arrangement we can capture the noise that is being emitted in all directions, helping us to build up a three dimensional sound map. This is important because there will be some noise sources that are travel directionally.
- The floor is made of a reflective material. This is to ensure that the sounds replicate the conditions of a normal house.
Words: Malvin Chua
