Description du projet
L’venir des robots sociaux se joue aujourd’hui
Une nouvelle génération de robots est en cours de développement pour interagir et communiquer avec les humains. Furhat Robotics utilise un masque translucide et un système d’nimation de pointe par rétro-projection pour son robot. L’nimation est générée, au moyen d’un jeu de miroirs, par un petit projecteur situé dans le cou du robot et par la cartographie d’une animation informatique qui épouse parfaitement le masque. Elle crée l’illusion d’un être vivant et en mouvement. Le robot Furhat possède un cadre intégré de gestion du dialogue multipartite qui permet des interactions complexes (parole, mouvements du regard, pose de la tête, expressions faciales et gestes en réponse à des événements). Il est également capable d’interagir avec plusieurs utilisateurs en même temps et de détecter leurs gestes et expressions. Le projet Furhat Robotics, financé par l’UE, vise à commercialiser son robot social et à démontrer les avantages de cette technologie pour la vie humaine.
Objectif
Furhat is a social robot that interacts with people just like people do. Furhat is an award-winning novel type of computer-to-human interface that is based on years of R&D on social artificial intelligence.
Furhat's body uses a translucent mask and a back-projected state-of-the-art animation system. The animation comes from a small projector located in the neck via a set of mirrors, and by mapping a computer animation that exactly fits the mask, it creates the illusion of a moving and living being. Furhat has a built-in framework for multi-party dialogue management that enables complex interactions—speech, gaze movements, head pose, facial expressions, and gestures in response to events. Furhat can interact with several users at the same time and detect their gestures & expressions.
Furhat Robotics is a spin-off company from KTH Royal Institute of Technology based on 15 years of research in human-computer interaction, spoken dialog systems, and 3D animation. Furhat is developed by a team headed by a former Disney Imagineer, and includes renowned scientists, and entrepreneurs, that left companies such Disney, Spotify & Klarna, and universities such as Yale, CMU & KTH to work on it.
Furhat has a strong early market traction—50+ customers globally are using it in education & training, therapy & social care, customer service & entertainment.
The annual market for social robots is forecasted to reach €2bn by 2025 with applications in multiple verticals (healthcare, education, public service, research, consumer & personal robots). To maximize our opportunity, we will focus on development of the generic Furhat platform, leaving implementation & commercialization of specific solutions to 3rd party developers & researchers. In this Phase 1 project we will carry out a market assessment & identify 2-3 most promising verticals for commercialization of the Furhat platform.
We are aiming at commercialising ~100,000+ Furhat robots by 2023, generating €28m+ in annual revenues.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligence
- social sciencessociologygovernancepublic services
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managemententrepreneurship
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsautonomous robots
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinateur
114 28 Stockholm
Suède
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.