A Dandenong South business is bringing an intelligent virtual assistant robot to Australia.
Sanbot Australia is launching the Sanbot Elf service robot from China’s Qihan Technology at Scienceworks on Sunday 12 November.
CEO Chris Scott said more than 60 sensors kept the 90 centimetre tall ’bot aware of its surroundings.
“It’s a very engaging and plucky little robot,” he said.
He’s let one freely roam his home, asking it to make video calls, check on appointments and play his favourite music.
It has animated arms, multi-wheeled feet and a HD touchscreen with long-lashed blinking eyes.
Elf can turn to face the person addressing it and be directed to sing, order pizza, change TV channels and adjust lighting, and finds its charging station when it needs to.
Mr Scott said the cloud-enabled device could read a person’s gestures and poses and navigate any objects in its way.
He said on-board cameras could allow businesses to manage hundreds of Sanbot robots from anywhere in the world.
“The ability of Sanbot to translate questions in over 28 languages and to communicate via a touchscreen, speakers and colourful LEDs makes it very interactive for use in a public situation,” Mr Scott said.
“Sanbot is already in service overseas offering flight information to stressed travellers at airports, patrolling warehouses as security guards, providing a telepresence for doctors in patient’s homes, acting as teaching assistants, waiters in hospitality, and acting as fun friends and learning resources for kindergarteners.”
Mr Scott has always loved to tinker with toys.
Back in 2015 he spoke to Star News Group from his then Hallam-based company Advanced Robotics.
He installed early robots back in the 1980s, studied a graduate diploma in robotics, and set up his business almost 30 years ago.
