Company touts robotics integration in meet-and-greet

York Exponential CEO John Mc Elligott and vice president David Rixter talk about robotics and how it can help a developing community such as the CNMI at the meet-and-greet gathering at the Commonwealth Development Authority Monday. (Bea Cabrera)

“The goal is to augment and not automate.”

These were the words of York Exponential CEO John McElligott at the meet-and-greet gathering initiated by the Commonwealth Development Authority on Monday, where the idea of integrating robotics in CNMI businesses is actually attainable.

“This is where industrial revolution meets community development but the goal is to augment and not automate the workforce. The idea is all humans and robots working together,” he said.

“The idea of using technology to help people instead of pushing them away seem to resonate in the challenges that you are having and maybe it will make sense to show technology that we are not only developing as it is currently happening in a larger scale,” McElligott added.

York Exponential is a company based in York, Pennsylvania and is leading the way in bringing advanced technologies to businesses. They promote robotics, which they call “cobots” as a service and integrate them into a company’s human workforce.

In his example, McElligott said that in housekeeping for hotels, “probably the thing that will make most sense would be to have a robot do a part of that job that maybe before had five people doing the job. Now you only have two or three robots.”

“There are certain complexities as robots are good at something that humans are not and vice versa, but now, the purpose is to augment and maybe make things a little bit easier and more time efficient,” McElligott added.

York Exponential was invited to the islands by CDA, represented by office manager Oscar Camacho, to have the opportunity to exchange ideas and share knowledge of having this kind of technology in the CNMI.

“We see challenges more as opportunities to be ahead the game, rather to try and play catch up all the time. We need to be doing our own thing to set the CNMI apart,” Camacho said.

McElligott said they will be going around Saipan, Tinian, and Rota to know more about the CNMI and see how his company can be of service.

“We need to learn more about the culture, the economy and especially the current issue which the CNMI is facing about the CWs. We want to have an additional solution and not create more tension to the discussion happening right now,” he said.

“We would be talking to many people and businesses that we can because the key is embracing technology now because technology is only going to get better and it is not going to stop. Once you have you have a solid baseline and an ecosystem that can support it as the new technology come, you can just take it and use take it,” he added.