Swedish social robotics company Furhat Robotics has acquired US-based Misty Robotics, creators of purpose-built social robots for developers, to advance technology capable of human-like expressions and autonomous conversations.
The acquisition of Colorado-based Misty Robotics, for an undisclosed sum, establishes an American base of operations for the Swedish scale-up.
Furhat Robotics co-founder and CEO, Samer Al Moubayed, who previously worked for Disney Imagineering and researched social robotics and conversational AI at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, will be based between Furhat’s Stockholm headquarters and the Misty Robotics offices in Colorado.
Continuing the Misty Robotics brand under its ownership, Furhat Robotics plans to integrate features from both platforms to enhance future social robots. This includes deploying its visual perception and conversational AI solution, which supports a total of over 40 different languages. It will also support further customisation of voice and personality for robots.
“As a robotics company, we have always admired the work of the Misty Robotics team, so to be joining forces with them is an exciting moment,” said Moubayed.
“With joint expertise and resources, we now have the vision and potential to create the most capable and exciting social robots to have ever existed. We know that in the next few years the robotics market will be worth billions, and service robots reflecting the best of human behaviour will be at the centre of it.”
Furhat’s robot is designed for a range of duties including medical screening, autism therapy, museum guidance, and is currently being used in a number of academic and commercial projects around the world. It can also act as a travel concierge, receptionist, teaching assistant, and provide employee training by role-playing a variety of realistic scenarios.
