Researchers from the Valladolid company Cartif and the University of Vigo have developedtwo humanoid assistant robots for hotels, “Sacarino” and “BellBot”. The first prototype will begin its internship as a bellboy in a few days at a hotel in Valladolid. His mission: to escort guests to their rooms and transport their carry-on luggage while explaining the services available to them.
Robots have a certainautonomythanks to the incorporation of technologies that allow you to move between the different units of the building, avoiding obstacles and using the elevators, as well as returning to the established points to recharge your batteries. And they are capable ofmaintain dialogues with customers, attend orders, supply information-tourism, weather, news …- as well as sending messages to or from the reception. And what is more interesting: ‘Sacarino’ is endowed with amechatronic head with expressivenessto show friendliness and availability to the customer.
The robot-buttons can act directly, when they are directly with the client, but it is also possible to contact them through a web page, from the terminals located in the rooms, to request an aperitif, a drink, the newspaper or any other room service product. In addition, from reception, employees can see at all times where each robot is and what it is doing, and send it specific tasks.
“Robotics is in a situation where it must make the leap to common acceptance in society, what we callsocial robotics“, explains Jaime Gómez, Co-Director of the Robotics and Artificial Vision Division at Cartif.” The idea was to make a robot that could offer some kind of service. Robots are already known that provide home service, such as robot vacuum cleaners or lawnmowers, and we wanted to take another step towards maximum interactivity with people. “
