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Purpose: This chapter describes the design and implementation, at the computer hardware and software level, of the Greggg robot. Greggg is a scalable high performance, low cost hospitality robot constructed from off-the-shelf parts. Greggg has a robust architecture and acts as a tour guide on-campus, both indoors or outdoors. This research allows one to build a customized robot at a low cost, under U.S. $2,000, for accomplishing the desired hospitality tasks, and scale, and expand the capability of the robot as required.

Practical Implications: The practical implication of the research is the capability to build and program a robot for hospitality tasks. Greggg is a customizable robot capable of giving on-campus tours both indoors and outdoors. In its current architecture, Greggg can be trained to be a museum docent and give directions to visitors on-campus or at an airport and scaled up for other hospitality tasks using off-the-shelf components. Enhancing the robot by scaling it up and expanding it, in addition to testing it with a range of increasingly more difficult tasks using machine learning algorithms, is highly beneficial to advancing research on the use of robots in the hospitality sector. Greggg can also be used for Robot-as-a-service (Rass) applications.

Societal Implications: The economic implication of Greggg is the ease and low cost with which one, with minimal technology know-how, can construct an autonomous hospitality industry robot. This chapter details the hardware and software needed to build a low cost scalable and customizable autonomous robot for the hospitality industry without having to pay an exorbitant price.

Research/Limitations/Implications: This research allows one to build their own customized hospitality robot under U.S. $2,000. Given the cost of building the robot, it has limitations on the hospitality tasks it can perform. It can navigate on flat surfaces, has limited vision and speech processing capabilities and has a battery life not exceeding an hour. Furthermore, it does not have any robotic manipulators or tactile processing capabilities.

Aging adults from low-income residential areas were found to have poor nutritional status and mental health based on National Health and Morbidity Survey Malaysia (2015). Good nutrient intake contributes positively in averting these problems. Traditional Asian vegetables (ulam) are rich in polyphenols, antioxidants and fibres which could enhance nutritional status and mood state. This study intended to determine the relationship between habitual ulam intake and nutritional status, mood state and cognition among 252 aging Malaysian adults aged 45–80 years from the low-income residential areas in Klang Valley, Malaysia.

It was a cross-sectional study that used convenient sampling. Advertisement and invitation letters were sent to three selected community centres in Klang Valley prior to data collection. Informed consent was obtained prior to the collection of socio-demographic data. Anthropometric measurement was performed as per standard protocols. Validated surveys were conducted to obtain information on ulam consumption, mood state and cognitive status using validated food frequency questionnaires, Profile of Mood State and Mini-Mental State Examination questionnaires, respectively.

The average of ulam intake was 20.5 ± 2.5 g/day (½ serving daily). Habitual ulam intake was associated with lower waist circumference (R² = 0.166, β = −0.216, p < 0.01), better MMSE scores (R² = 0.337, β = 0.128, p < 0.05), less anger (R² = 0.081, β = −0.116, p < 0.05), less tension (R² = 0.139, β = −0.204, p < 0.01) and positive total mood disturbance (R² = 0.095, β = 0.164, p < 0.05) after adjustment for gender, age, energy intake, total fruits and vegetables (non-ulam) consumption. The ulam intake at 100th percentile (=30g/day) associated to a better nutritional status, mood state and cognitive status in comparison to 25th percentile (<7.9 g/day) (p < 0.05).

Findings from this research would recommend people to consume not less than 1 serving of ulam everyday in order to have improved nutritional status, mood and cognition; nonetheless, future studies are required to clarify the causal mechanism concerning this relationship.