Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant are perhaps best known as the attentive ears and dulcet tones inside the company’s range of products. The Alexa Voice Service (AVS), the voice-activated digital assistant, has shown up in a number of third-party devices, too.
With domestic robots striving to emerge from the pages of science fiction and take their place in our daily lives, it’s perhaps no surprise to learn that Alexa is finding its feet, so to speak, in the form of humanoids. At the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin this week, China-based Qihan is debuting the Sanbot Nano, a 2.7-foot tall artificial intelligent robot for home with Alexa serving as its ears and brain.
Founded out of Shenzhen in 2006, Qihan works on a range of products across robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), data analysis, and other related services. The company already offers the Sanbot Elf, which has seen some traction in retail, hospitality, and other public service positions, and the enterprise-focused Sanbot King Kong. But with Sanbot Nano, Qihan is pushing this advanced AI robot into the smart home with a range of Alexa-enabled integrations, including home stereo systems, thermostats, and connected fans.
Through the accompanying mobile app Q-Link, users can see what the intelligent home robot is seeing remotely, and they can also monitor all devices they have connected to the Qihan Cloud. Sanbot Nano has 50 sensors installed to help it circumvent obstacles in its path and can recognize voices and detect when a person enters the room. Through its connection with Alexa, consumers can order a pizza, ask for their fitness stats, and maybe even turn on the TV or play some music.
“The world is captivated by the emergence of robotic developments and we’re constantly challenging ourselves to make the most amazing robot experiences possible,” explained Qihan CMO Ryan Wu. “With Sanbot Elf’s breakthrough growth in the retail, hospitality, public service, and government industries, we are excited to introduce an advanced humanoid robot for the home.”
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time someone’s attempted an Alexa-powered voice-activated robot. The Omate Yumi was announced last November, but nothing seems to have come of that, with the accompanying Indiegogo funding campaign seemingly pulled. UBTech also unveiled the charming little Alexa-enabled Lynx humanoid at CES this year, with an anticipated launch of spring 2017 — but the $800 robot is still not on the market.
With a number of companies raising big money to make domestic social companion robots a reality, Qihan’s Sanbot Nano could be one of the first intelligent service robotics to introduce one that’s powered by Amazon’s AI voice smarts. The Sanbot Nano only supports English (U.S. and U.K.) and German at present.
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