Alona on Shift Happens podcast

Have you ever wished you could send a hug from miles away? Well, you’re in luck! Our CTO Alona Kharchenko recently shared the magic behind Devanthro on the “Shift Happens” podcast.

With the Robody approach, we can already go to homes. In fact, we have been testing in private homes already. Robody lived with a person for three days in Pirmasens. It took us half an hour to set it up, we brought the robot to the flat, and it was functioning. And because there is a human operator driving it, you can cover a wide range of activities, tasks and physical support.

Alona unpacked our tech, our vision, and why making connections is at the heart of everything we do.

A ton of information is carried during communication on a person’s face. Robody exactly shows your face: in the VR glasses, there are cameras that are recording the motions of the face, of the muscles. And these are then translated in real-time on the face of the robot and animated. This helps to build this connection and understanding, to communicate an intention or an emotion.

Curious to learn more? Catch the episode here: join-ada.podigee.io/167-bonus-episode-interview-with-alona-kharchenko

Thanks to Dr. Léa Steinacker and Dr. Miriam Meckel for having us!

Devanthro is a Munich-based robotics and AI business, building Robodies – robotic avatars for the elderly care market. Their partners include Charité Berlin, University of Oxford, and Diakonie. An early prototype is part of the permanent exhibition at Deutsches Museum in Munich. For more information, please visit https://devanthro.com/.