Robotise started up near the end of 2015 out of the Technical University Munich. At this time, software was already enabling service robots to leave the factory setting behind and to transition into the everyday lives of people. Soon enough, people will be interacting with service robots every day, which makes design a critical component to moving them successfully out of factories and into the real world. These robots need to be secure and enjoyable to interact with and most importantly, they need to make an economic contribution.

It took several dozen interviews, starting at airports, care homes, and hospitals to finally arrive at hotels, to formulate a simple but distinguished question: “Why maintain hundreds of separate minibars (one in each room), if you can have one minibar that comes to every room?” This makes for almost a 100-fold increase in efficiency for hotels. That’s where our story begins.