Entertainment Robots

General information

In today’s world where information is available around the globe a matter of seconds, innovation is imperative for businesses to survive in internationally-competitive markets. Today's companies face the daunting challenge of how to showcase these innovations successfully.

Imagine an annual shareholder’s meeting where shareholders and journalists are served a glass of sparkling wine by an industrial robot in the hotel lobby. Meanwhile, a mobile robot runs through the evening program before escorting them to the conference hall. Or imagine a show in which entertainment robots move in sync with the artists’ movements or interact directly with the audience.

Expertise and sample projects

Being highly dynamic and capable of intelligent communication, robot technologies are both awe-inspiring and fascinating – whether it be to move and handle objects or to interact with members of an audience. Sensors make it possible for robots to respond to their environment, enabling them to recognize people and objects, detect movements, measure distances and register touch.

In recent years, Fraunhofer IPA has developed diverse entertainment robots. When the "Museum für Kommunikation" in Berlin was re-opened in March 2000, three mobile robots went into operation which have since been entertaining visitors in the atrium of the museum every day. Similar entertainment robots have been commissioned by Opel in Berlin and for a museum in Spain. The mobile entertainment robots “Oskar” and “Mona”, as well as different generations of the mobile household assistive robot “Care-O-bot”, have been in operation on behalf of various companies at trade fairs and events. Industrial robots can be also used for entertainment purposes. Examples include the musically-talented “KR150” - a group of three robots performing as “percussion artists”, a robot-controlled champagne bar and a robot cell for serving food.

Services

All we need are your ideas, which we then transform into reality with our technological expertise. We can develop a new customized entertainment robot platform for long-term operation or rent you an existing robot, such as:

• Guide and information robot “Oskar”: recognizes and talks to visitors with individually-configured speech output, displays information on a screen and gives guided tours
• Household assistant “Care-O-bot”: recognizes and greets people, takes orders, automatically grips snacks and beverages, offering and serving them as it gives individual messages, takes a bow

Tell us about your requirements and we will develop for you and with you your entertainment robot, from the concept right up to implementation.