#servus robots

[stevebattle]

LISA (2001) by Servus Robots. The "LISA" merchandising robot was developed as a joint venture between Servus Robots and the National Consortium of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. In the last photo above, LISA leads a parade of ScrubberVacs through a warehouse for shipment to a U.S. Military Academy.

[stevebattle]

ScrubberVac AKA e.bot (2000) by Servus Robots (Servus Robots ultimately became Intellibot). ScrubberVac can be operated in either an automatic or manual mode. The battery-powered sweeper unit is designed to sweep both carpet and hard floors, and can automatically navigate between areas. The scrubber unit cleans up to 13,000 square feet per hour, for up to 60,000 square feet per battery charge. It cleans large rectangular areas following a Zamboni pattern, originally devised by Frank Zamboni in 1947, as a method for re-surfacing ice rinks. It's a satisfying way of covering a floor area without introducing tight turns, similar to the shape of a paper-clip.

In the first photo above, a parade of ScrubberVacs is led through a warehouse by a LISA robot in preparation for deployment to West Point Military Academy. The pre-loved ScrubberVac in the second photo is in a sorry state, looking like something you'd buy from a dodgy Jawa, but it's the clearest photo I can find.

"This is Intellibot's first marketing video of the 6th Generation Robokent floor cleaning robot with historical and educational annotations by its founder and robot evangelist, Buck Ward. This project was originally developed under Transitions Research Corporation direction in 1987 with the introduction of Generation 1. Versions 1 through 5 were sold by Electrolux through its Robokent brand." – Nexus AMR, The First Intellibot Marketing Video Year 2000.

[stevebattle]

"Flo" (2000) by Sebastian Thrun, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and Servus Robots. Flo is the prototype of the "LISA" merchandising robot, built on the mobile base of a Nomad Scout. Servus Robots ultimately morphed into Intellibot whose founder, Buck Ward, became the CEO of Cyberclean Systems.

"This unpublished 2000 video from Cyberclean Systems history features "FLO" the robot prototype of "LISA", a joint development between Servus Robots (which became Intellibot) and the National Robotics Engineering Consortium at Carnegie Robotics. Designed by Sebastian Thrun PhD, the robot was the world's first merchandizing robot that engaged shoppers providing directions to items in the store, offering discounts on items and enabled advertising from third parties. The robot was the first known robot to use onboard LIDAR to generate a navigational map as well as the first known robot to utlize cloud based management to load and manage onboard content. This unique AMR concept was the brainchild of the founder of Intellibot and current CEO of Cyberclean Systems, Buck Ward. Two primary engineers were Jorgen Pederson and Allen Bancroft who are now of RE2 fame. FLO eventually became LISA. A large volume order was placed for LISA. This video features FLO working in a grocery store, Community Pride in Richmond VA." – The world's first merchandizing robot.