From Coffee to care: how RichTech Robotics sees robots changing lives
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Welcome to today's episode of Lexicon. I'm Christopher McFadden, contributing writer for Interesting Engineering. Today we're joined by Matt Casella, president of Rich Tech Robotics, to explore how AI-driven robots like Adam are transforming hospitality, healthcare and beyond. We'll dive into the exciting potential of robots with personality, the human side of automation, and Matt's vision for a future where humans and robots seamlessly collaborate.

Gift yourself knowledge. iPlus is a premium subscription that unlocks exclusive access to cutting-edge stories, expert insights and breakthroughs in science, technology and innovation. Stay ahead with the knowledge that shapes the future. Matt, thanks for joining us. How are you today?

I'm great, Chris. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate the invitation. Our pleasure. For our audience's benefit, can you just give us a little overview about yourself, your past? Sure. My name is Matt Casella. I am the president at RichTech Robotics. RichTech Robotics is a robotics and AI company focused on serving needs in the hospitality and service sectors through a portfolio of robotic platforms.

Excellent. Get straight into it then. So Rich Tech Robotics recently introduced ADAM, is that right? A-D-A-M, ADAM? That's correct. Yep, ADAM. We refer to the robot as ADAM. Which is described as the world's first humanoid AI-driven robot. Could you tell us about some of the key technical innovations behind ADAM and what sets it apart from other existing humanoid robots, please? Sure. So ADAM was developed about...

three years ago at this point. We debuted him at CES in 2022. And yes, positioned as the world's first AI-enabled dual-armed humanoid barista robot. So Adam is set up to pour coffee, pour cocktails, mocktails, really any type of beverage that you can imagine.

And that's done through a variety of technological advancements, right? So we've got the onboard camera that allows Adam to recognize all of the things that are within his working envelope, whether that's the ingredients and the tools needed to make any of the drinks and or customers that are walking up to place an order that he can begin an engaging dialogue with through the onboard LLMs that are used where he can process

really host a winning conversation with the guests that are coming up and really starting to broaden his capability through a variety of advancements. Does he have a... I'm seeing the robot.

from My Sins. Does he have like a humanoid face or? So, yeah. So he's described as a humanoid robot, right? So he's got two arms and when you look at him, you can tell that there are some human characteristics. But really, if you were to look at him, your audience maybe who would Google Adam will see he looks like

relatively like an egg shape. There's, you know, what you would recognize as the eyes would be up at the top of the head. And then he has the dual arm capability. And he is stationary. So he's not walking around like, you know, the Optimus robot from Tesla, et cetera. And that really was done intentionally. For us, we think that there's a vast number of the tasks up

upwards of 80% of the tasks that we say that we assign to humans that we think an atom robot or other humanoid robot can do it from a stationary position, whether that's sitting at a desk or standing at a counter. And we really want to focus on that, focus on that, the ability for a stable atom to be able to perform a wide variety of tasks. You know, today it's beverages, tomorrow it could be a variety of additional tasks. Yeah.

Great. I mean, look at him now. The first thing that came to mind is, have you seen Big Hero 6? Yes. I've heard that reference before for sure. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. It's a bit off topic, but I wonder your thoughts on this. With humanoid robots, robots like this in general, do you think the way forward is going to be more this kind of cartoon-y kind of look to robots or try to simulate the look of a human being

or is that, you know, I think so when we, when we were developing, uh, developing Adam, there was some talk of the uncanny Valley, right? So this idea of, of not wanting a robot that looks exactly like you or me, or it would be, you know, well, that is a human or is that not a human? And that's, that, that evokes a certain type of emotion. And I think there's, uh,

We sit in a very interesting place because we just specifically at Rich Tech Robotics are focused on the hospitality and service sector, right? So that means that we are interacting with the general public. And so we have to take really, really great care in how that experience and that emotion is perceived by our customers, right? We've entered a space, and I think that the hospitality industry

lagged a bit, right? I mean, I've been working on this and trying to develop spaces in the automation of kitchens and hospitality and cooking, et cetera, for a number of years. And in that space, that hospitality service sector has lagged behind the industrial space, right? There's one way to do things in a warehouse or in manufacturing, right? Whatever's cheaper, better, faster, you can drive down to that. But

But when you're talking about robotics and automation in the hospitality sector, you have to worry about those things, but you also have to be concerned with how is my offering going to be received by my customers who are coming in to engage with our service, our experience. That's, you know, in the hospitality and service space, the experience is the product, right? So when you're taking steps to automate that, you really need to be careful about how you're

how you're perceiving that. So taking great care and thinking about how Adam is perceived and having him be one, you know, he's, he's, Adam's been referred to as, well, I'm referring to him as a he, but Adam is referred to as a, as cute, right? Friendly. These are all adjectives that we've heard from our customers who have experienced Adam. And I think that that's important.

It's approachable. I'd happily go up to that robot and ask for something. Well, and he elicits an emotion, right? He elicits some response from people that you want to be positive or you want it to be, you know, when you look at it, we also have a robot called Scorpion that's a little edgier, but the use case there is more nightlife, more, you know, wine, cocktails, et cetera. So it's a little, so it is a slightly different type of emotion that he elicits.

Wow, that's fair enough. Okay, on this subject, so service robots like Adam are transforming industries like hospitality you mentioned and healthcare. Can you share other specific examples of tasks these robots are now performing and how they're changing workflows or customer experiences? You kind of touched on it.

Sure. So I think at Ridge Tech Robotics, we're focused on wanting to build out an ecosystem of automation, right? For us, that means that continuing to provide solutions that allow our customers, whether they're restaurateurs or hotel operators or hospital operators, even into the automotive service sector, really the flexibility to automate where they're comfortable and how they want to automate

which I think is a broad spectrum, right? When we think about automation, you can think about taking a path where you want to be fully automated, not a single human around. That's the experience. And then you can go all the way on the other end of the spectrum of people who want to at least present that there's no automation. But those people are still talking about how they can benefit from automation. Maybe it's in the back of the house of a restaurant.

or in the back of the house of the hotel. But there's all sorts of ways in which people can choose to automate. So you can have an Atom and couple Atom with a maitre d', right? So you can have the production robot Atom interacting with maitre d' that's able to deliver to your guests and really be more automated. You can have an Atom that's working alongside a barista to help with that extra automation.

extra capacity to really keep the cocktails flowing. And it's definitely part of that experience. And then you can also bring in, introduce in a wide variety of settings, introduce automated delivery, which is still really a big part of our business.

whether that's Matri-D or our Titan robots, which are a little higher payload capacity. So they're seeing work in places like hotels or hospitals carrying large, heavier pieces of, heavier loads around, whether that's large loads of bed linens that they're carrying around and meeting up with the

with the hotel housekeeping staff to make the beds, whether they're moving trash around. And that's actually seen a branch out into the automotive service sector. So that's higher payload capacity for the Titan. We've got our MedBot robot, which is deployed in hospitals. So MedBot is elevator enabled, right? It's able to travel, navigate up and down the floors of a hospital. And that is used primarily at the moment transversely

transporting the drugs from the onsite pharmacy up to the nursing station throughout the facility. Obviously, that's a trip that needs to happen just in time, right? They can't store those drugs up at the nursing station. So you're just continually making that loop. And that's really where we think there's a huge benefit today, right now, where there's meaningful work, meaningful hours, minutes and hours that can be freed up

for the hospital staff or the wait staff of a restaurant to really dedicate more time to their customers. If we're able to automate some of these tasks that are repetitive, don't necessarily add a lot of immediate value to the customer or the patient in this case in the hospital,

And I think that that's the exciting part about where we're at, where RichTech Robotics is at, is that we've got over 300 robots currently deployed, and we're going to continue to grow that number rapidly across all platforms, whether that's delivery or the floor cleaning or our productivity robots like Atom and Scorpio. We'll touch more on the jobs later. I'm just thinking now what kind of resistance you might expect as these robots become more

There's more of them out in the workforce from the actual, especially with hospitality. Do you reckon there might be a movement? I'm trying to think of how to word this. Like you've got small breweries, people love these kind of craft beers.

Do you reckon we'd find it's like pubs or bars that would say, no, all our staff are 100% human? You know, I think that's the great thing and the exciting thing about the hospitality and the service space is that there's room for everybody. And like I alluded to before, the whole idea of hospitality and service is creating an experience and an environment.

And so will there be people like you mentioned? Absolutely. Right. You, I could say to you, Hey, Chris, let's go get a burger. Right. And you just got an image of what I meant. Right. But I may have had a different idea, the setting, the type of burger, et cetera. All of these things are different characteristics that these places that would sell us a burger have chosen to make their offering. Right. You, you, you could have thought maybe let's go through a drive-through, grab it,

sack of burgers and go sit at the park and eat them. And maybe I meant let's go sit at Ruth's Chris and sit at the bar and have a really high elevated gourmet burger, right? So all of these things are choices that people in the hospitality and service sector make to provide an experience to their guests and their customer that they believe will come back. So yeah, is there going to be a challenge? Will there be people on a different side? Absolutely. But will there be people who are saying, yeah, there's...

a real easy way for me to fit this delivery robot in my space because that allows me to keep my waitstaff on the floor, right? My, what, what's the great thing about this little craft brewery, right? It's the, it's the cool, it's the cool brewer who knows all sorts of stuff, right? Do I want him running back and forth, maintaining the, maintaining the, the, the brew in the back, or do I want him out in sun talking to my customers, right? While we're, while we have a,

a robot that can carry the beers back and forth or whatever that may be. I mean, I,

It was recently at a conference, right? And I'm sitting meeting with someone and we were having a lunch meeting and talking about robots. And the waiter, I think the waiter was probably short staffed. There was one guy there and he was in and out the kitchen door 20 times, because I counted it, before he stopped to serve us. And that's not his fault. I think he was being asked to do way too much, right? But

But did that trip that he was continually making, right, to go grab an extra setup or whatever for somebody, did that help? Was that value add? Or should he have been able to be more dedicated to us and improve our experience? So that's the great thing about the hospitality, the service sector, is that I think that there are

Places for everybody. I believe and I hope that there will be additional robotics makers who are providing solutions into the space because I think that the more comfort people feel with automation, robotics in this space, that's going to be a win for everybody. And we're really excited to be one of the first companies out here doing this. Cool. I mean...

It's not ironic, but it could lead to us being more social in the future. Well, I think that you touched on something there that I really do believe. I think we all, through COVID, right? I mean, we just celebrated is the wrong word, but we just passed the five-year anniversary of COVID.

of COVID, right? And we all saw what that, what happened. And that affected everybody, but it really affected the hospitality space, really affected food and beverage. Fast forwarded the third party delivery technology by many years. And then we all got to a place where we thought, well, I guess we're never going to go to a restaurant again. We're just going to have margaritas delivered to our front door and that's it, right? That's all we need.

I don't think that's a great solution. I want to go out to dinner. We have four kids. I would like to get a babysitter and take my wife and go out to dinner somewhere and not have to eat at our kitchen table all the time, right? And she would too. I would like to take my kids out to a fun, cool experience and not have to go through a drive-through and take our food somewhere else, right? So I really believe that automation is going to open up the toolkit to

to a very creative group of people. People in the hospitality and service industry are very creative, right? They're always thinking about how they can develop a great experience for their guests. And now allowing them to really access robotics and the AI that is now embodied in these robotics is really going to open up the toolkit. And I believe, I really believe, I wish I could tell you all of the ways in which

They will start to use it, but I don't think we've seen them yet. And I think that for me, that's the really exciting piece of my job is that we get to work with our customers to really work on solutions and how we can bring the hardware, the hardware of robotics, the power of AI, and then provide solutions to them, you know, to really to win guests. Yeah.

Yeah, because we're likely on the cusp of a huge explosion in different designs of the robots. There's a new film on Netflix, I don't know if you've seen it, Energy State or something. It's only fresh in mind because I watched it last night. Anyway, there's no- I'll have to check it out. ... designs of robots. There's a magician one, a hairdressing one. Yeah, it just came to my mind then. Yeah, I can see that being the future of it. Yeah, make that a reality. That'd be pretty cool. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah, definitely watch that with your kids. I think they'll enjoy it. Well, it's 13. I will. Be careful. Anyway. We'll check it out. We've answered the next question. I'll skip it. Regarding artificial intelligence, what AI capabilities do your robots possess? How do you see AI evolving within robotics in the next five to 10 years? So we talked a bit about the onboard camera for Adam, right? The NVIDIA Jetson Aura Nano. So his...

Adam's ability to use machine vision to recognize what's in his workspace, whether that's the tools, the ingredients, the people, and to be able to perform whatever task we have designed for him to perform. Really, that machine vision has gotten so powerful now. It used to be you had to plan, right? You had to plan.

plan all of the motions and program all of the motions, move them up on the coordinate plane and bring them down. Now he can recognize any obstacles, obstacle avoidance, automated path planning, that type of, you know, that type of advancement allows for much greater

much quicker development of tasks. There is obviously the LLMs that he's loaded with really able to be tailored to any specific task or setting that we've got them set up for. NVIDIA, Isaac Sim, so the planning and the training of these robots, that really to me is

What's going to push this forward? And by this, I mean the introduction of AI into the real world so quickly is the ability to train these robots so much quicker than we ever had before to be able to run thousands and thousands of simulations online.

to be able to get them to be programmed safe and to be safely deployed out into the real world. That really is kind of what's, that's going to be the big push here over the coming months and years. For us, that localized AI,

right, into these, into these different robotic forms, uh, is important where to that end, we've, we've developed, uh, you know, a university accelerator program, or we're trying to partner with some leading universities around the country here to, uh, to provide some hardware for them, our hardware that they can start to use to train their, um, train their models on and really develop, um, award-winning solutions. I think the way that we think about Adam and

and scorpion uh they're really ai service platforms today they're beverage they're baristas or or bartenders um but really tomorrow the i think the you know it's an it's a uh

wide open space. I see. Do you see in the future then being able to have like an AI service droid like this comes with like a kind of base package of knowledge and then you can kind of train it on the job? That's, I mean, that's where we're moving to, right? That the training, which is the cool part, is not in the future, is going to be able to be done by, you know, by a

regular person, right? By somebody who's, who's, who would be needed to train their next employee, right? They can, they can be training these robots and that really is powerful, right? So that we don't need, uh,

you know, computer programmers to be the ones programming these robots, but really they can be real world, real life situations, training, adaptable to all sorts of new settings. And that really is, is where I think that you start to see people get over the hurdle of feeling like they don't want the automation. I think the setting,

The setting that you described about the, you know, the small brewery or whatever, you know, pushing back against this. I think what I believe, and we touched on this a little bit, that there's the pushback

or maybe what delayed the hospitality industry from getting it, you know, adopting advancements in automation and robotics early on was that they didn't all want to be the same, right? So you don't want to adopt a solution because everybody's got this same solution. There's nothing different about it. It looks cold. It looks sterile. It's all of these things that don't say warm, inviting, fun, hospitable, right? Right.

And through this type of new training, through the ability to take different form factors of robotics and automation and train them and really have them be custom to your setting and your solution and your offering.

That's the exciting part. And I think that's where we're, I believe that that's where we're headed. It'd be interesting to see as well if they could develop, it would be a general artificial intelligence, would like kind of develop their own characters. You might have two robots at the same unit.

and each one can have its own little character. It can kind of develop itself. I think absolute personality, right? I mean, that's really what you're getting to, and I think that we're going to get to a place where it's all of these small details that unfold in the training of these robots that they continue to experience, right? I mean, if we're getting robots that are learning and being trained by their experiences...

So that gets to a place where they do develop slightly different. Of course. And if they're interacting with customers, they're having different conversation. Yeah. Yeah. It would happen naturally, wouldn't it? Organically. Right. So to speak. Yeah. Fair enough. Okay. So there's often concern about automation displacing jobs. So how does rich tech robotics address these fears and how do you see robots complementing rather than replacing human workers?

So we're focused right now on getting our robots out into the world working. And the way that that works best today, and I believe into the near future, is working alongside human beings, right? So whether that's Adam, who is working as a barista, but there's also other cashiers and other people working behind the counter,

alongside Adam, whether that's a delivery robot that's meant to just take the drugs from the pharmacist up to the nurses at varying nursing stations throughout a hospital. We believe that that's the right way, right? But there are a lot of tasks in these jobs that require repetitive, not really high value add things to be done. And we can automate those tasks

and allow for the humans that are still in these operations to be working towards higher value things. And I believe that that's the right way to think about it. And I, I think that that's the right way for a couple of reasons. One, I think, you know, we've touched on COVID. I think we've seen a lot in the hospitality and service sectors where we've stripped back a lot of the offerings, forced the people that are working in those industries to do a lot more, um,

And that's become hard. And I think that's taken, taken the service level down a couple notches. So I believe adding automation and robotics back into that allows for that to be elevated. Um,

And I think that's the right way to go. And then there's, you know, people who would talk about, well, this, these are the low level entry level jobs that you're taking away. Well, let's think about how maybe with the introduction of robotics and automation, we can, we can level up what is considered an entry level job, right? That I think that that's the right way to think about it, to have a, you know, and have a growth mindset about it really, right? To say,

We don't have to be stuck here. This doesn't need to be what we require of an entry-level position. We can move that up because now we've got automation. And I believe that that's really the way that things will go, right? The rising tide lifts us all. That was going to be my next question. It's about entry-level jobs. One of my first jobs was at Barman. Yeah.

I've got many, many important skills talking to people. It'd be a shame to lose that, but that wouldn't be replaced with it because you still want human-to-human interaction. No, I mean, I think that there's... I really believe that I have an optimistic view, right? I think I need to, and I just do, I guess, by nature. But you think about how this...

democratizes businesses that can be opened, right? I mean, you now can not just have to be somebody who goes and works for somebody, but maybe now the cost of entry of opening and starting your own hospitality business, you're now that much closer to owning a bar operation, right? And you can make it exactly what you want. And I think the great part

about it that I've touched on is that it's in this hospitality space, you're trying to win customers and you've got to create a great experience for people to want to choose you over and over again. Whether that's your food tastes better, whether that's a cleaner hotel, whether that's better patient outcomes, whatever it is, those are things, those are metrics that will still be met. And what you can't just say, it's just going to be

Cold, sterile, looks like nothing warm and inviting, that's not going to win, I don't think. You still need to be, as an operator of these businesses, very focused on your guests and how you're going to provide a great experience for them. Another thing that's popped in my head is roles like security would be perfect for a robot, right?

Well, I mean, the more eyes you can have on things, right? Cameras, robots, you know, trolling around. It's to give more door security, like we call them bouncers. I'm not sure you call them American. Sure. Yeah. That would be great. Absolutely. Or first aid because not everybody in a bar is sort of first aid trained. So if these robots could also be first aid trained, they're not going to panic. Absolutely, right? Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

I mean, I think there's all sorts of ways in which our world can be made safer. I mean, I think any time you introduce new technology, people get very concerned about what the bad actors will do.

And I think that's human nature, but I think that the possibilities and the benefits will continue to move us in the right direction. Quite agree. On this subject then, so when deploying robots in sensitive industries like healthcare, how do you ensure safety, security, and ethical compliance, particularly given the increased autonomy of advanced AI systems?

Well, that's, I mean, that's a very, very sensitive, tough question. So none of that information that our robots would gather is stored, right? So we do have, Adam is recognizing when people walk in, but it's not recognizing that it's you or me and storing that data. I mean, that's something that we do need to be aware of.

complying with. Obviously, in a healthcare setting, there's plenty of hurdles to go over to make sure that we're complying. And we're not in the healthcare setting at the moment. We're not interacting directly with those patients. That's a critical piece of this, that we're able to monitor and maintain that chain of custody from the drugs so that it's going from the pharmacist

to a nurse, right? There's, there's multiple points of, of checking and making sure that there's, there's a human element to that so that, that, that liability still is, is being maintained. But it's, it's going to, that's going to continue to evolve. We don't have any robots that are directly working with patients, but I know others do. And I know that that's, you know, that's,

going to continue to be top of mind for everybody. Absolutely. But there are also benefits to it as well. I mean, it's not going to make mistakes necessarily, like go and get me X milliliters of this

It shouldn't, right? I mean, it should be when you're talking about drugs or when you're talking about a bartender pouring a drink, right? I mean, you were a barman. I mean, you know, this is pouring down to the milliliter. But yeah, I think that there's a lot there. I think a big thing that we, kind of in what we were just talking about, the freedom that robots can offer us. And really the biggest way that I think

that I think about that in the future is really an elder care probably, and the ability for people to stay in their homes longer, you know, really to provide the support that's needed in that generation, which I think is, is great. We're all living longer and I think people will want to be able to keep their autonomy longer and having a robot companion is,

probably makes sense for a lot of people if and when we can get there. Especially if he reduces the cost of elderly care. Care homes do a lot of good, but from my point of view, it's a shame they exist at all. It should be the fans looking after. I know it's not as easy as that, but yeah, a little low, relatively modestly priced robot to help you out so you don't have to put your parents in a care home.

Absolutely. It would be a bonus for everyone, I would have thought. And it would give everybody that level of comfort. I mean, the big thing is memory, right? Memory is a tough one for a lot of aging people. And I think that's probably where the family thinks that the best thing to do is to get them into a home where they could be monitored 24-7, right? I mean, that's

That seems like the best thing. But if you can, through automation, through robotics, start to provide that service for them, then maybe you can keep them in their home longer and that becomes a better outcome. I mean, speaking personally, my mom didn't have to move into a home, but she moved into the family house that we all grew up in, then moved into a smaller apartment and she hated it.

And she unfortunately passed not long after she moved into that. And I think it was just part of the, you know, it's, it's part of the, the will or the, you know, there's so much tied up in that place that, you know, having that feeling like you have to go somewhere else because then for whatever health related reason is not a good feeling. And it probably has, you know, diminished effects on, um, you know, on, on the, the

the person's ability or will. I think so. It kind of makes sense. We're social animals. We would have spent our time from cradle to grave together as a family unit. It seems like that you would last longer. Yes. Am I right? I don't know. I agree. Anyway, a bit morbid and I'm sorry to hear that. From your perspective, which industry stands to benefit the most from robotics and automation over the next decade and why?

That's a tough question. I think there's, you know, I, you know, speaking from my personal point of view, I think it's hospitality. And I think so for a couple of reasons. One, I think it's so far behind that it has so far to catch up. Right. That I think that that's, that's an important piece that there's going to be a big move here, I believe. Yeah.

I think that hospitality, for all the reasons that we talked about, hospitality and service, because we've entered this phase where Jensen Wong referred to it as the chat GPT era of robotics, that we're now with this localized AI, we're going to see an explosion, he believes, so do I, of new robotic solutions in these spaces. And I think

The differentiation that we can start to have with some of these robots, the custom solutions, that really works best in these hospitality and service settings where you're trying to find a customized solution, a differentiated solution across all of these businesses, as opposed to, say, the car industry where moving cars down an assembly line, whether you're talking about a Toyota or a Ford,

right? There's no real difference. You and I don't care how that car moves down the assembly line as long as we get the car that we want, right? Amazon,

Tons of robots at Amazon, but we don't care. I don't care how that package gets to my door by 8 a.m. I just care that it does. And I don't see what happens along the way that it gets picked off a shelf and put into a box and sealed and brought and then loaded onto a truck all automated. That doesn't matter. I don't interact with that. So, yeah, I mean, will that improve and take steps forward? Absolutely. But

bringing robots out into the real world is really, I think, this next wave. And I think we're still probably in the early adopter phase of people who are people being the operators of these businesses who are making these choices. But more often than not, I'm able to have conversations where people have seen a robot out in these settings, whether one of ours or a competitor's that

they could say, oh yeah, we saw a delivery robot here or we saw this or we saw that. So we're getting to a place where people are more comfortable with it and I believe that that's, I'm hoping that there's a tidal wave to follow. How far away do you think we are from

being able to have hobbyist robotics capabilities, like people can build their own computers or... Am I making sense? Yeah, sure, sure. You know, I don't know how far away that is. It usually probably is going to be here sooner than I think. But we're a number of years away. But I think with these...

with the advancements of AI, it is making things so much quicker, right? I mean, that's, that's really the, the speed, the speed is the, both the exciting and the daunting and the daunting tasks, right? Is that things are changing. Improvements will be made so much quicker. We'll, I mean, I don't know. I have, my kids are, you know, 13 down to eight and, uh,

Could they, you know, in their lifetime, they could, they'll, could they own some robots, some personal robots? Absolutely. Right. I mean, I mean, how many people have an iRobot roaming around the floor, vacuuming the, you know, vacuuming their floor? A lot. Right. And so what's, what's the next step, step up from that? I mean, the blend between kitchen equipment and a robot is, is continued to creep, right? I came from the restaurant, the kitchen side of things.

And, you know, kitchen equipment is so smart these days, right? That it's really just on the cusp of becoming a robot, many of these pieces. So, I mean, I think it's going to be, you know, that's how I see it happening. I'm

I'm not as convinced we're going to see armies of humanoid robots marching the streets as much as we're going to see the things that, you know, that were, you know, we're, whether it's kitchens or kitchen equipments or vacuums that are, that are becoming smarter and have more functionality and maybe they're now mobile, right? Maybe, maybe they can now navigate around a space. So it,

It's going to continue to be this evolution, and I think that we're excited for it at Rich Tech Robotics. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's going to require, that kind of thing would require some form of standardization of parts like USB-C, you know, with the cables, the different parts for you to mix. Unless you're Apple, then you can just change the cable every two years and make everybody throw everything out, right? Yeah. Fair enough. Okay, last question. Yeah.

What's your vision for RichTech Robotics and the broader robotics market? Are there upcoming innovations or projects you're particularly excited about? Upcoming projects, I touched on briefly this university accelerator program. For me, that's a really exciting one. I think there's so much happening in this space and it's getting so much attention.

that it's really exciting to hear what's happening at some of these universities and being able to partner with some of those and what that then will mean for us, hopefully. I mean, this is not just for charity. This is really for us to help to advance the capability that's coming. At Rift Tech Robotics, I think we're really excited about continuing to broaden

the portfolio of automation solutions, both robotic and AI powered solutions across really probably we're maintaining within our three verticals, production, cleaning, delivery. That's how we, that's how we think about the, that ecosystem that you can kind of at,

By combining solutions in these different categories, you can really start to automate any type of setting you want, whether that's Atom or Scorpion or maybe the next iteration of an armed robot. But with

with things like the vision capability, um, the, the localized AI coupling with that. It's, it's really, really exciting. And I think it's, it's speed and I'm, you know, I believe that we're moving fast enough to keep up with it, but, uh, that's, that's the exciting thing is the challenge of, of keeping up with, keeping up with, um,

the advancements that are coming. Cool. And keep naming your robots, keep giving them cool names. Scorpion. If I had a bar, I'd definitely get a scorpion. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's all my questions. Is there anything else you'd like to add you think is important? We haven't touched on that. No, I think that's great. We're really excited at RichTech Robotics to be part of this next wave. I think it's a unique place

to be sitting between the general public and this robot revolution, and helping usher this in. Because I think I do, I really am optimistic about all the benefits that are to come and I'm excited to be part of it. Well said. With that then, Matt, thank you for your time. That was very interesting.

Great. Thanks so much, Chris. I appreciate your time. Also, don't forget to subscribe to IE Plus for premium insights and exclusive content.