The Sophia robot, built by Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong, was first introduced in 2016 but, since then, we haven’t heard much about her.
This could change soon as Hanson Robotics has announced its plans to mass produce robots by the end of the year.
Hanson Robotics has four models, including Sophia, that will begin rolling out of factories in the first half of 2021.
Sophia has Artificial Intelligence, processes visual data and recognizes faces. He also imitates human gestures and facial expressions and is able to answer certain questions and have simple conversations.
The decision to go into mass production for Sophia comes at a time when researchers predict the pandemic will open up new opportunities for the robotics industry.
“The COVID-19 world is going to need more and more automation to keep people safe,” said founder and CEO David Hanson.
Hanson has big ambitions for Sophia, as the CEO aims to sell thousands of robots in 2021.
Professor Johan Hoorn of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who has worked on Sophia, said that even though the robot is still in its infancy, the pandemic could accelerate its development and advance the human-robot relationship. .
“I can assume that the pandemic will help us get robots to market earlier, because people are beginning to realize that there is no other way ,” Hoorn said in an interview with Reuters.
