Now You Will Meet A Robot In Your Next Hotel Stay – SaviOne

Savioke, the aim of the company is ‘to improve the lives of people by developing and deploying robotic technology in human environments.’ This involves places that people work and live in. The SaviOne has been designed so that it can be used specifically in the hospitality industry. The company spent a total of 7 months refining this particular model.

During this time, a continuous effort was made to fully understand the needs of end users such as hotel staff and guests. The agile and iterative methodology that was employed to complete the development process makes this project a class apart from the many others that are under development.

According to Savioke spokesperson; ‘We made a working prototype that did something quickly and then added features and redesigned based on user feedback, our evolving understanding of the task and our notion of the minimum viable product we were developing. We built a working prototype each month for five months, hitting a milestone every two weeks, so that by the fifth month we had a prototype we could show to customers in hotels.’

Each prototype that was prepared focused on one key element that contributed towards the robot’s design. Savioke also mentions that Google Ventures Design Team helped out in the design and testing of the SaviOne. Now to the million-dollar question, how does SaviOne really work? SaviOne will travel around the building and shall map the structure of the building. Afterwards, the staff members need to only enter a particular room number and SaviOne shall know how to get there. The robot makes use of a number of sensors to carry out navigation and moving around, which includes sonar and laser rangefinders, depth cameras while also being able to communicate with elevators via Wi-Fi.

SaviOne is based upon a Robot Operating System that is being run by the Open Source Robotics Foundation. The robot itself is about 3 feet in height and weighs less than 45 kg with a carrying capacity of 2 cubic feet. The robot is capable of walking at a human’s pace. This week, a trial shall be carried out at the Aloft Hotel in Cupertino for SaviOne.