The Botlr did it.
In the hotel lobby.
With the push of a button.
It made a delivery to a hotel guest at Aloft Cupertino, that is.
A robot butler known as Botlr made its debut as the newest hotel employee on Aug. 20.
The 3-foot-tall robot, complete with a butler uniform (a wrap-around sticker), is able to maneuver around the multiple floors of the hotel similarly to a Roomba, bringing items to guests they may have forgotten.
Toothbrushes, chargers and even snacks are just a few things that could be brought up in the robot’s 2 cubic feet of storage space.
Created by the Sunnyvale startup Savioke, the robot is built to serve.
When a guest calls to make a request, the person at the front desk will program the room number into the robot, place the item inside and send it on its way.
“It has sensors all over to map where rooms are and to sense people,” said Tim Smith, spokesman for Savioke. “It then uses wifi to call the elevator, which is my favorite part. When it arrives to the room, it uses the phone system to say it has arrived and uses a different sensor for when the door opens and releases the package.”
In addition to beeping noises, the robot communicates via a small touch screen that features blinking eyes. Guests can rate the Botlr’s service immediately after the delivery based on a five-star ranking. When it gets five stars, it does a little dance to celebrate its success.
“We often test new technologies here, be it Apple TV in the guest rooms to smart check in, which is the ability to open your room with your smart phone, and now we welcome the Botlr,” said Brian McGuinness, senior vice president of Aloft Cupertino. “It is really just a moment of fun when guests meet Botlr. It’s that childhood wonder. [It] has the work ethic of Wall-E, the humor of Rosie from ‘
Botlr, also known as ALO, will likely be piloted until the end of the year before more versions of him are expected to roll out at other Aloft locations.
“This is a really exciting robot; it’s the first mobile robot for doing delivery in a hotel environment,” said Steve Cousins, CEO of Savioke. “It allows staff at the front desk to spend more time with guests in the lobby and less time riding the elevator and walking the halls, so we’re very excited to both enlighten the guests here and empower the staff.”
The company hopes the delivery robot will be able to aid the services and care industry.
“We’re all about, in the long run, building robots that can help people, and this is really the first step,” Cousins said. “As we master that skill of navigation, then we can think about beyond delivery and do things to help people in all different ways. That’s the vision that drives us as a company.”
