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SALT LAKE CITY — They’re a rare sight to behold, but little carrier robots on wheels are following people around the streets of Salt Lake — and people are starting to notice.
Maybe you’ve spotted one. The robots look like large gray or red boxes that can follow behind their owners as if pulled by an invisible string. They haul up to 40 pounds, go up to 6 mph, and can handle a 16% incline — essentially able to go anywhere a wheelchair can.
Update: I found the engineers who are testing the robot out in Salt Lake pic.twitter.com/MrBVFveJdu
— Liesl Nielsen (@liesl_nielsen) December 10, 2019
The robots are called Gita (which means “short trip” in Italian) and are made by Boston-based Italian company Piaggio Fast Forward under the parent company that created the Vespa.
The cameras and sensors on the front of the robot throw out an infrared pattern that can map the user, which then allows the robot to follow that specific person around while avoiding other obstacles. All the user has to do is push a button and stand in front of the robot as it memorizes their shape; then they can turn around and walk away, and the robot will follow.
A Salt Lake-based agency called TalentTeam has recently been hiring “human robot testers” to try out the Gita prototypes, according to Steve Pluim with TalentTeam. Testers pick up the robot at Piaggio Fast Forward's location at the Gateway Mall, take it for a spin for four hours, then bring it back to the engineers and offer feedback.
The company is conducting a marketing tour in Los Angeles but is only testing the robots in Boston and Salt Lake, so spotting a Gita is a noteworthy event.
"Piaggio Fast Forward selected Salt Lake City as a testing location for a number of reasons, but first and foremost because of its neighborhoods and walkability. "Pairing with the Gita robot is about getting outside and exploring, and this city offers a tremendous amount of space to do that," Piaggio Fast Forward CEO Greg Lynn said in an emailed statement.
Piaggio Fast Forward will stop testing in Salt Lake within the next week, however, and TalentTeam is no longer accepting applications for human robot testers. But the robot was recently made available for purchase by the public just a couple weeks ago at the end of November.
If you have $3,250 to shell out, you could purchase your own personal robot butler.
The best part is hearing about how people choose to use (Gita),” said Mark Brinton, a temporary employee hired by TalentTeam to work at Piaggio Fast Forward's Salt Lake location. It’s great for those in wheelchairs or people who walk to the grocery store but can’t carry their purchase back home, he added.
The biggest challenge in Gita's creation, however, has been sticking to Piaggio Fast Forward's "vision of the core functions," Lynn explained.
"It's a counterintuitive approach to a robot — you don’t want to have customers get distracted by the technology.” he said.
"With 60 engineers and roboticists, we have so much talent and so many ideas. The challenge was keeping it simple and making the robot useful to the maximum number of people. We want people to see Gita and think of it carrying stuff for them rather than ordering burritos.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article said the robot can handle a 40% incline. That has been updated to 16%. The article also said Brinton was an employee of Piaggio Fast Forward. That has been updated to reflect that he is a temporary employee hired by TalentTeam.
