Robot technology in everyday life

More and more robot technologies are finding their way into our everyday lives. However, until now there have been hardly any automation systems outside of industry. With Mojin's technology, these are brought into everyday environments and, thanks to their modularity, can be configured precisely to a customer-specific solution without major development effort. "Our aim is to commercialize the Care-O-bot 4 technology and automate processes in the service sector. The robot is intended to support increasingly scarce specialist staff by taking over simple tasks," reports Dr. Ulrich Reiser, Managing Director of Mojin.

The Care-O-bot-4 technology developed at the Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart can be used in a variety of ways. Above all, the plug & play modules, the high-quality sensors, the patented ball joints, which give the robot a high degree of agility, and the multimodal input options make the robot technology unique. The service robot is already being used in the field of smart services as a sales assistant, as a museum guide and in patient care. However, numerous areas of application are also conceivable for the smart home and smart industry sectors, such as general household support or in automated logistics.

"In times of radical technological change, a large number of new companies always emerge. That was already the case 200 years ago. In my view, we are currently experiencing a second start-up era. The success of the German economy depends on how well we shape it. Mojin Robotics is an excellent example of how long-term technology development can be used to bring something to market and achieve success. With 25 spin-offs, Fraunhofer IPA is a real start-up institute, because technology transfer to industry has a very high priority here," says Professor Thomas Bauernhansl, Director of Fraunhofer IPA, about the commercialization of the technology platform. With Care-O-bot 4, Mojin wants to establish a robot platform in the long term that can run a wide range of intelligent services for various industries.

Sales assistant Paul

Dr. Alex von Frankenberg, Managing Director of High-Tech Gründerfonds, is enthusiastic about the technology: "We see huge potential in the service sector in particular. The shortage of skilled workers in this area will become increasingly acute in the coming years. Mobile service robots could be used to counteract this." Care-O-bot 4 has already had the chance to prove itself in stationary electronics retail at Saturn. As a sales assistant, the robot named Paul always had an overview and knew the entire product range.

Without human intervention, he helps customers find products. Paul not only shows humor, but also adapts individually to the customer. His user-centric appearance, friendly language and trust-inspiring eyes give him his own personality and he can adapt to the customer individually using his camera or facial recognition software. With the help of artificial intelligence, it can capture the general sentiment of consumers and take this into account in communication. Even a busy shopping center is no problem thanks to its spatial orientation capabilities. Thanks to various sensors, the mobile assistant can avoid other people or objects, taking the shopping experience to a whole new level.

Paul also impressed a top-class international jury and emerged as the winner of the EHI Award 2017 in the "Best Customer Experience" category. There are virtually no limits to the robot's individuality. And even if Paul gets stuck, he is automatically assisted by human sales assistants and bridges the waiting time with a little dance. as