You may have seen a black, four-wheeled rectangle shaped mobile robot moving around the SoftServe stand and offering food at some of our events. This robot’s name is Booter, and he is a mobile catering robot that is designed and produced by SoftServe’s Robotics team.
The design and the thinking has a central role to play in the creation of a robot because it’s the researchers and engineers who shape the interfaces between humans and machines. Standing at a height of just over three feet, Booter is no different.
Booter 2.0, the latest version of the Booter, uses the Robotics Operation System (ROS), an open source set of software libraries and tools that help build robot applications.
A collection of highly sophisticated sensors such as LIDAR, Ultrasonic and thermal cameras are applied to make sure Booter can carry weights, knows where he is, and is able to avoid any obstacles.
Will the future be void of delivery people but a buzz with wheeled delivery bots? We shall see.
Use Cases
Education – train and education staff on various aspects of work
Improve customer service - greet customers and offer them refreshments while they are waiting to be seen by a bank employee
Eyes on the ground – Can help to identify products on the shelves
Delivery – Can save time and money by helping to deliver small products (packages or food), or even assist to serve food and beverage at events
Applications
Can be used in a variety of industries to carry out minor but important manual tasks that can free up time for humans to focus on other mundane tasks. Cloud based robots can be used in financial services.