Techman Robot deploys robots at Taoyuan library

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Techman Robot has deployed robotic arms and autonomous vehicles with vision and AI-powered collaborative technology at a Taoyuan library to assist users with self-service book retrieval.

The company said the initiative aims to extend robots from factories to educational settings by automating book picking and shelving. The robots’ built-in vision and motion-control technology allows them to identify book locations and plan movement paths.

When users reserve books through the library’s online system, a robotic arm retrieves them and an autonomous vehicle delivers them to the pickup area, reducing labor needs and improving tracking accuracy. The devices also operate during closed hours to help staff move and organize books.

Mayor Chang San-cheng (張善政) said the library, which opened Wednesday and houses more than 23,000 books, is the city’s first to combine AI-driven systems with automated equipment. The city plans to introduce robots and AI technology to other libraries.

Chang said the library also features a smart book locator system, e-paper readers, and book inventory robots, as well as an AI-powered recommendation system to help users find titles suited to their interests.

According to the library, the first floor houses a smart data center where some equipment is powered by AI servers with Nvidia H200 and L40S GPUs, supporting generative AI and digital twin applications. A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical system that uses data to simulate and analyze performance.

In July, Techman installed six collaborative industrial robots at the science education center of the city’s Municipal Yung Feng High School to help students learn to integrate AI-powered systems with robotics.