London, United Kingdom. 31 May 2022 – Furhat Robotics, the advanced social robotics technology company, has announced the relaunch of its Misty robot, significantly improving its accessibility and usability, and making it ideal for use in sectors like education and research.
This relaunch follows the acquisition of Misty Robotics by Furhat Robotics earlier this year as part of a strategic expansion plan that includes strengthening its footprint in the US and broadening its industry reach.
The new Misty platform is more intuitive and easy to use for developers looking to learn and explore social robotics. It features new language capabilities that allow more complex conversations with the robot. The launch also includes the release of new tools to develop on the robot, with the inclusion of Python as the main programming language, and a user friendly drag and drop interface. This makes it ideal for use by non programmers and in the education sector, by both educators and students.
“We are very excited about making robots a reality in sectors where there is a clear human impact,” says Samer Al Moubayed, CEO and co-founder of Furhat Robotics. “There was always great synergy between Furhat and Misty and with this launch you can see how that’s playing out. We’ve updated Misty’s conversational capabilities with a focus on natural language understanding and conversational skills. We also believe that social robots need to reach a much wider sector of society, and be part of the educational system, to prepare the next generation of talent. Misty is designed especially to optimise learning and engagement, and has both an attractive and rich design, and very advanced sensors and hardware, making it unique in the market today.”
The relaunch also includes an improved software development kit, to deliver a better user experience for programmers when developing their own skills, as well as laying the foundation for creating a library from which users can directly download skill sets onto Misty for use in different settings.
Social robots like Misty are already gaining traction in education. Other key areas for Misty are academia and research settings, driving advances in areas such as Alzheimer’s, autism and aging in place, as well as in corporate innovation.
“The possibilities are endless. From helping students who are learning programming, to assisting in making the classroom more inclusive and accessible. But beyond that, the applications for social robots are far reaching from social and health care, to unbiased recruitment. Now, with our feet planted firmly in both Sweden and the US, we’re able to bring robots to more people,” concludes Al Moubayed.
The Misty relaunch is taking place on 31 May 2022, alongside the launch of a new Misty website.
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