A robot by CTRL Robotics company is seen in the auditorium of the Sky Hotel in Sandton. (Photo by LUCA SOLA/AFP via Getty Images)
Visitors who attended Design Joburg from 19 to 22 May would have seen a cat-shaped robot navigating through the Sandton Convention Centre reading out welcome messages and reacting to forehead and ear rubs.
The robot is one of six types of automated delivery robots programmed by Ctrl Robotics that can carry a load of up to 30kg from a single battery charge of between 10 to 24 hours.
A similar automated delivery robot — not cat-shaped — is running at Netcare’s Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg delivering medicines to patients within eight to 12 minutes, a task that previously took staff two to three hours to complete.
Ctrl Robotics creates proprietary software for robots it imports from China that services hotels, restaurants and hospitals. It is working on warehouse automation and to automate cleaning of warehouses.
The robots have the same technology as self-driving cars, such as LiDAR, infrared and depth sensors and RGB cameras. It runs on Android and navigates by avoiding obstacles; it is adaptable in changing environments and moves around people.
Steven Pinto, chief executive of Ctrl Robotics, said that not a lot of companies in South Africa need robotics and automation. “Salaries are getting more expensive, but machines and automation help lower the cost of production, and when you lower the cost of production, you can pass on the savings to the customer.
“Machines can lower costs because they come at a fixed cost, whereas people fluctuate based on the price of food, rent and inflation — robots don’t deal with that.”
Robotics was complicated, difficult to use and set up “but our tools and services are there to make it simple”, he said.
The company claims that once the robots arrive from China and are delivered to clients in South Africa, they can load Ctrl Robotics software and tools and have it integrated with their existing systems within an hour.
“It’s not about commissioning us to build custom software that takes six months. We want customers to use our existing software and basically drag and drop the tools they want, deploy it and off it goes,” said Pinto.
The two and a half year old start-up leases robots and allows companies who buy their own robots to load the company’s software, for “robotics as a service fee”.
The Mail & Guardian was given an opportunity to experience another industry 4.0 technology, one that is changing the way consumers purchase vehicles.
Virtual reality headsets for car sales
Virtual reality headsets are being used to sell cars to potential Volkswagen buyers before they see the vehicle. They can access VR content for the Golf 8 GTI, Polo, T-Roc, T-Cross and Tiguan.
Steffen Knapp, head of VW passenger cars in South Africa, said that rolling out VR was part of its digitisation strategy, and that in addition to its customer module available at 40% of its dealers, it was also being used to train dealerships when new products come out.
“The VR headsets are a fun element that offers a modern experience while reducing costs. You can give the customer the experience of having all kinds of cars in a virtual world without having them physically at the dealership,” said Knapp.
The company has seen a 25% drop in users on its website since the Protection of Personal Information Act came into effect and understands its customers don’t like searching for information online. “They want fast tools, so we are working on chatbots to automatically get the information without giving up their data,” he said.
Employee training takes up to three hours on the headsets for each new vehicle.
New Reality, the company behind the VR content for VW, is run by Ctrl Robotics.
Pinto said: “The challenge post-Covid is the supply chain being disrupted, so you need to create the best experience for the customer even when you don’t have a vehicle physically in front of them.
“We try to make sure the customer is comfortable with the purchase decision especially if they pre-order; there can’t be much deviation from the item they chose to when it arrives because of the substantial wait time in the industry right now.”
Each VR product has a custom driving experience with some games thrown in, along with configuring a model. It takes a minimum of five months to develop, and each vehicle is a 60 gigabyte file size.
Knapp added that 80% of VW vehicles arriving in South Africa are already sold. The main reason being the global shortage, but the VR headsets allow for pre-specifying volume through pre-ordering.
VW is also looking at a new online consultant offering — a semi-VR concept where the customer is not in the showroom but can be consulted remotely through a vehicle.
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