Promobot, the Russian robot-maker that sprang to international fame last month when one of its robots was reported to have escaped from the testing ground in a fit of wanderlust, has made its first deal with the U.K. on the back of the escapade.
IR77 shown during his bid for freedom last month, which ended when his batteries ran out. Photo: Promo-bot.ru.
Five robots will now be sent even further afield – to the U.K. – to work at exhibitions, doing what Promobots do best: providing visitors to crowded places with useful information in their trademark comical and quirky way.
“We will use the robots on exhibition stands at a variety of trade shows. We may also use them for press launches, technology events and other promotional events,” said Adam Kushner, business development consultant at Adams Agencies, the U.K. firm that has bought the robots.
“Promobot is one of five robots in our inventory and we believe that it will be incredibly popular. We will be displaying Promobot at Confex [a major meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions event] in 2017 where it should prove to be one of the highlights of the show,” he added.
Alexei Yuzhakov, founder of Promobot, told Sk.ru that the robots would be sent to their new country of residence around the end of August, and that integration should not be difficult: the robots already understand and speak English, as the company has previously sold its robots to the U.S.
“We’re currently preparing the robots for delivery by adding the client’s requests to their basic linguistic database, and will continue to do that during our work with our partners,” said Yuzhakov, adding that he hoped the deal would be the beginning of an ongoing partnership.
Kushner said his company particularly liked that the robots could be controlled using a handheld device.
“We are always looking for new types of robots and the recent story that we saw on Google [about the escaped robot] definitely influenced our decision, as it was a very prominent feature over here in the U.K. and enabled us to find a product that we had previously not come across,” said Kushner.
Promobot, a resident startup of the Skolkovo Foundation’s IT cluster, shot to fame around the world last month when a video of one of its robots, IR77, was posted online. The video showed the robot blocking traffic on a busy road in the Russian city of Perm, where Promobot is headquartered, having apparently “escaped” from the testing ground.
The company has since received dozens of letters from the U.K., including one from London’s Science Museum, which is working on a major robot exhibition and wanted to borrow IR77 for the show. Yuzhakov said his company had declined the offer as it wants to keep working with the runaway robot itself.
“IR77 is an interesting research subject. This autumn we are launching a brand new model, and it’s possible that this glitch in IR77 will help us to attain a new level of technology, so at the moment, we can’t give the robot to the museum,” he said.
The company also received a CV from a young Brit hoping to work at the innovative startup, as well as multiple pleas not to punish IR77 for his breakout – which ended when his batteries ran out.
“The success of Promobot both in Asia and in Europe shores up the company’s position as one of the leaders on the world’s service robotics market: the fastest-developing and most promising area of modern robotics,” said Olga Avryasova, head of intelligent service robotics at the Skolkovo Foundation’s Robocentre.