Robots are the Next Big Thing in Telepresence

September 26, 2013, 3:07 PM ET

Robots are the Next Big Thing in Telepresence

By Steve Rosenbush

Deputy Editor

The latest thing in corporate videoconferencing isn’t the grand “telepresence room” with wall-to-ceiling high-definition monitors and leather chairs arranged around a walnut table that’s as long as an airport runway. It’s more like a Segway with an iPad stuck on top. A cheaper, more intimate and mobile form of telepresence, or what used to be known as videoconferencing, is entering the business world. In this latest version of the video call, a motorized, remote-controlled platform several feet high is outfitted with a monitor and camera. The devices are equipped with video conferencing and navigation software, and when connected to the Internet, they allow people to have face-to-face video contact with someone in a distant location, moving freely about the remote environment with the device functioning as their physical double.One of the companies in this new market calls itself Double Robotics. The startup, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has taken about $1.5 million in preorders over the last year or so, according to Valery Komissarova, director of business development at Grishin Robotics, a Russian venture capital firm that backed Double. Grishin was launched by Dimity Grishin, co-founder and CEO of Mail.Ru Group, the Russian Internet giant that he took public on the London Stock Exchange in 2010. Grishin Robotics has invested just under half of its $25 million in capital, making investments in the $250,000 to $1 million range, according to Ms. Komissarova.

Double, which recently began shipping products, has delivered about 1,000 units to smaller and medium size companies, as well as dozens of Fortune 500 customers including Google Inc. and The Coca-Cola Co., according to Double co-founder David Cann. So far, the company has sent its  telepresence robots—which look sort of like a iPad, on top of a pole, on top of a barrel on its side—to the U.K., Germany and Canada, according to Mr. Cann.

“Most customers are using Double for telecommuting.  Some customers use Double for hours every day and we’ve even heard of some customers who are already increasing their allowed telecommuting because of how Double keeps their team in close contact,” Mr. Cann said. “We see this as a very positive sign for telecommuters and companies, since Double solves the most common challenges of telecommuting.”

Double isn’t the only company in the market. Suitable Technologies in Palo Alto, Calif. makes a device called Beam that serves a similar function. While Double makes use of iPads, Suitable’s Beam has a fixed monitor and camera and proprietary features. Suitable CEO Scott Hassan wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The Double weighs 15 pounds and works with an iPad, “so the user interface is very easy to use,” Mr. Cann said.  “Users can drive from a Chrome desktop web browser without any plugins and it works over Wi-Fi or even LTE,” he added in an email.

Double’s devices, which are distributed on its website for $2,500 each, reflect massive changes in the robotics business, Ms. Komissarova said. “In robotics, people often spent years and millions of dollars developing products, and when they were ready, no one cared,” she said. Now, robotics, and the hardware business in general, is faster and more agile, thanks to cheaper components and software and 3D printing that has accelerated the prototyping process, she said.

As a result, robots soon may be commonplace. “Within a few years, all sorts of consumer devices will be robotic,” she said. Grishin expects the global market for robots to reach $390 billion by 2017. The definition of the robot varies, but Grishin defines a robot as a combination of hardware and software that can sense, analyze and act upon its environment, and essentially “outsource” a certain amount of human function, according to Ms. Komissarova.

Grishin is looking for real world applications of robotic technology, not esoteric projects such as expensive “humanoid” robots, she said. “I am telling people in robotics to find a customer need. Find a problem you can solve,” she said.