Inside the head of a robot creator

Last week the KTH researcher and co-founder of Furhat Robotics, Samer Al Moubayed, had won the award Stockholm’s most entrepreneurial person 2015 . Svenskt Näringsliv is behind the award and selected the winner with the following motivation:

Unafraid and smart entrepreneur who has taken robot technology to the market. By developing and selling the most social robot in the world, his company Furhat Robotics has contributed to putting Stockholm on the map as one of the world’s most innovative cities.

and the award winner is very pleased about it.

– The award comes as a confirmation that what we’re doing is acknowledged and is in the right direction. This confirmation is very inspirational both for me and also for the whole team. Hopefully it is also encouraging for other young startups who, like Furhat Robotics, dare to approach highly futuristic products that demand a lot of belief in the idea, and don’t shy away from the challenges along the way, says Samer Al Moubayed.

The robot creator came from Syria in 2008 to finish his PhD in computer science and speech technology at KTH, and later started to brainstorm the first prototype of what was to become Furhat Robotics. What was from the beginning a playful experiment with multiple artificial  intelligence components in one system soon proved very successful. Together with  colleagues Gabriel Skantze, Jonas Beskow, Preben Wik all from the CSC school at KTH, they set off to England to show off the new technology within a month.

– It started with an innocent hack over a coffee on a Friday afternoon and led to us being selected to present at the Science Museum in London in front of nearly 7000 visitors. That’s when we started to realise that there is interest and since then we have been working to get Furhat Robotics to the market.

Furhat Robotics has received support from KTH Innovation and business coach Tom Magnergård for a long time and has really gone from strength to strength. Samer Al Moubayed contacted KTH Innovation with his idea soon after the project started. The robot head with built-in computers has pushed the boundaries of how physical robots can interact with people by integrating layers of social intelligence on top of the software, allowing people to interact with the Furhat robot in ways similar to how people interact with each other.

– The support for entrepreneurs in Stockholm is increasing rapidly today and the innovation ecosystem in Stockholm is a very strong competitor. We came from the academy with our idea and have had invaluable support from KTH Innovation and our coach Tom Magnergård, says Samer Al Moubayed.

Furhat Robotics is in the beginning of something they themselves call a revolution when it comes to personal robots. During 2015, Furhat has been a hot technology company that made its mark in the media and has started to find its way to the competitive market. Furhat Robotics also shows how the technology can be used in different ways, and clients interested in and investing in the robot head stretch from  Walt Disney in USA to Swedish schools and organizations for children with special needs.

– We have all seen and grown used to robots that maw the lawn or build cars and can even recently drive them, but what Furhat Robotics is building is robots with social intelligence, personal robots with skills that allow them to socialize, interact, and integrate with people, as a social alternative to the traditional computer interface.

Furhat can understand human behavior, feelings, intentions, personality and different channels of communication. And when social intelligence is integrated into a robot that can use language and gesture,  it is almost like interacting with another human being. The founder himself feels a bond when interacting with the robots.

– One of my favorite moments when interacting with Furhat is when he addresses me by name, the whole interact becomes very personal. It is always a great joy to see how positive and happy people feel when they talk, play or interact with Furhat. Our robot both entertains and potentially contributes to a higher quality of life for people in how they use technology and interact with it, he says.

What’s up next for Furhat Robotics?

– Today we have an ongoing collaboration with some world leading companies such as Intel, Honda, Toyota and Disney but also with many universities across the globe. At the same time as we offer Furhat as a platform for developers to build social interaction applications on non-commercial agreements, we have also started a few properly financed projects for cognitive training and education. Recently we signed a project where Furhat will be installed for a year at two Swedish schools, Kunskapsskolan and Fryshuset , where children will have the opportunity to develop and practice their study plan using Furhat through social games as a complement to conventional teaching. We are also working on Furhat as an intelligent and integrated receptionist in public places such as parks and shopping centres and hope to be launching the first pilot in 2016, says Samer Al Moubayed.

MALIN LUUKE
Luuke@kth.se