“Dude, where are the Robots!?!”
In a COVID-19 world that seeks to separate sick from healthy, why are there so few robotic solutions that help?
I was having a conversation this week with Andra Keay, the omnipresent always-active executive director leading the Silicon Valley Robotics non-profit. Andra talked about the dramatic increase in non-robotics companies coming to her and seeking solutions:
“Dude, where’s my robot?!” (because most have been led to believe there’s a robot for everything these days).
Many of these solution-seekers turn to Andra because she has her pulse on just about everything-robotics, globally. They figure, correctly, that if there’s a robot that solves a need they have, then Andra likely knows about it. Many of these solution seekers are looking for robots that, in a variety of industries and circumstances, can separate the sick from the healthy to a) protect essential workers, b) stop the further spread of a devastating virus amongst both their employee base and society as a whole, and c) avoid liability.
The problem? There are few (if any) such robots to fill such solutions — and if they do exist, they’re incredibly expensive. And, even those, are not adaptable to the myriad environments into which more people are seeking robot help.
This blog has been very clear and vocal about the problem that exists in the robotics marketplace: there are a small number (500? 1,000?) credible roboticists in the world who can deliver a high-quality working robotic solution to the marketplace. And, 90% of those experts are targeting their efforts at factories and warehouses where the willingness to pay >$50-$100K for a solution is quite high.
Now that COVID-19 is upon us and there are, literally, thousands of places that a robot could be utilized to make deliveries, interact with the sick, remotely enable healthy workers to evaluate remote environments (and remote people), the market is rightly asking:
“Dude, where’s my robot?!?”
This crippling gap between supply (people who can build a credible robot) and demand (people who want to automate in a world of a deadly virus) is the gap Misty Robotics started filling 6 months ago when we shipped the Misty II.
Into this gap, Misty Robotics offers three ways for problem-solvers to create their robot solutions without having to rely on finding a roboticist to solve their problem:
- Any developer or employer-of-developers can use Misty II as-is, today, to add accessories and write simple “robot skills” to tackle problems.
- Utilizing very affordable and easy-to-prototype locomotive bases, any developer or employer-of-developers can work with companies like SolderWorks to create quick prototypes (and ultimate solutions) that require different heights or locomotive bases.
- Misty Robotics, itself, knows how to build robots and, during this crisis, we’re available to help anyone build a customized robot that solves a large problem they have.
One: any developer or employer-of-developers can adapt Misty II, as-is, today.
This is what Misty was built for — enabling any software developer, anywhere in the world, to create robot solutions. Because of her advanced capabilities (unavailable in all but a few other robots for less than $3K) — self-driving, voice conversation, face detection/recognition, advanced AI processing, personality, hardware extensibility, and smooth locomotion — she’s ideal for thousands of tasks where those capabilities are required.
Need to remotely ask a patient a few questions, take their temperature, blood pressure and hand out a mask? No problem — just add a sensor or two and program Misty to do so. Need to scan an office worker for their temperature, record that in a database and assure they’re viable to come to work? Again, not a problem — one of our developers took a few days to build this particular skill. Need to remotely pilot some supplies to a sick patient? Just attach a small red Radio Flyer wagon to her trailer hitch and deliver supplies. Want to just tell Misty “take these supplies to Room X”? Simply use her self-driving capabilities and send her on her way.
For less than $3K (self-driving version) and $2K (non-self-driving) and a few weeks of software development — “Dude: there’s your robot!”
Two: using a different locomotive base and Misty’s hardware extensibility, extend into additional problem areas.
Because Misty is so modular and hardware-extensible, one can build sub-$1K locomotive bases that the sophisticated Misty can control — like our Robo-Chariot prototype shows. The value is the sophisticated integration of self-driving, voice-conversation, personality and all of the rest of Misty’s great features can be extended into environments that require additional height or the ability to carry a lot of weight.
Need to automatically disinfect an environment? No problem — use the tall base like Misty has, attach some UV lamps and let her go inside the rooms that require disinfecting. Need to deliver heavy supplies — either remotely controlled or automatically? Not a problem — work with us to create a low-profile based transport. Need to have an autonomous entity patrolling your now-empty office or school? Build the right-height base and let her loose either autonomously on her patrol schedule or as-commanded remotely.
For $3K plus a small engineering project to build the proper locomotive base, probably consuming a few weeks to a couple of months — “Dude: there’s your robot!”
Three: using Misty Robotics’ engineering team to build something custom.
Our product team was spawned by Sphero, lead by Ian Bernstein, builder of >5M robots across a dozen different robot types. This team has created one of less than a handful of super-sophisticated, sub-$3K, mass-produced robots available in the world (most sub-$3K aren’t self-driving).
We know robots. We know just how ridiculously hard it is to conceive of and build robots. It’s not just “another consumer electronics” product, where one just adds software. Robots are ridiculously complicated fusions of sensors, motors, processors and environmental chaos.
You can rent our robot team. If you have a robot problem that Misty or Misty + Locomotive Base can’t solve, we can undertake a project to build you either a prototype version or a prototype + then-production version of a robot. Yes, this is a pretty expensive route to travel, but if you’re confident your robot solution will make you tens of millions in saved or made money, we’re here to help. “Dude: there’s your robot!”
It’s a radically constrained robotics world out there. Most of the roboticists in the world work in academia. The very small number that can deliver an actual product creates an acute crisis, especially at a time like now when we could desperately use robots to help in myriad ways. Misty II, the product, enables almost any technologist to self-serve their way into a robot solution. Misty, the company, is here with services to enable others with greater customization requirements.
So, whether it’s “buy a $3K robot and pour your software development in” or “rent a robot team” to hyper-customize your robot:
Dude: Here’s your Robot.
