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Draft:Furhat Robotics

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  • Comment: Hi, all the links seem to be working now for me except for: 1) Bloomberg 2) DOI: 10.52098/airdj.20255136 3) Cision News. Thanks, Zzz plant (talk) 21:06, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: Declining due to WP:NPOV until the source list can be given greater scrunity, and asking the editor to respond to the concerns via the talk page to identify next steps for WP:FCOI. Caleb Stanford (talk) 19:21, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: "Media coverage" section should be removed it is of no interest, unless you are reporting what they have said about Furhat Robotics. Theroadislong (talk) 16:00, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: I am going to reject this for now due to the promotional issue and COI concerns. The article's references appear to have several issues and will need a major reworking. I did not check all of them carefully, but from the references I did take a look at, they raised the following concerns: 1. The University of Manchester source does not appear to mention Furhat. 2. Bloomberg is a reliable soruce, but the Bloomberg source given returns a 404. 3. Similarly, WSJ is generally reliable, however, the WSG source provided returns a 404. 4. New York Post is not generally considered reliable, except on topics of entertainment, per WP:Perennial Sources. 5. There are other 404 errors, such as this URL, and probably others. 6. The PRISCA lab source again, does not mention Furhat. 7. The article relies on several references to academic articles published by Al Moubayed, my assumption is that these are notable, but they should be used in a restricted fashion and with care, and I think that the same paper source is listed in the references several times. 8. This BBC article, once again, returns a 404. Caleb Stanford (talk) 01:38, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

Starting on a clean slate after the latest review (May 2025)

  • I have completely revised the entry into an entirely new draft
  • The draft is not AI-generated, please remove the tag.
  • All sub-par sources have been removed
  • Several sources included that are in-depth, reliable, secondary and independent (BBC, Guardian, Reuters, Reuters Video, The Times, Bloomberg, Engadget, TechCrunch x2)
  • Completely revised the tone: removed technical jargon, and promo language
  • Included origin story and refocussed article on company rather than the product Furhat robot, which is covered in its own article
  • Company website only used for dates; deleted academic work of Furhat employees (apart from article that won an award)

Viljowf (talk) 08:27, 7 May 2025 (UTC)


Reply to AfC comments accompanying latest submission:

  • Thanks Zzz plant! I've fixed all three. Viljowf (talk) 14:01, 30 April 2025 (UTC)
  • COI declared. Submissions to AfC allowed under WP:COI, and I have been transparent throughout this process.
  • The "AI-generated" tag may not be appropriate in this case, as it mischaracterizes the draft’s origins — the draft is not AI-generated; only the citation formatting was briefly handled using an LLM. All references were based on real sources that I had personally researched. The LLM did not hallucinate content or sources, as it was used only for formatting: it simply introduced character errors in the URLs during formatting, which caused 404s. I have since manually verified and corrected every reference. There is high level of text-soure integrity, and I welcome further scrutiny in this regard. I apologise for this oversight, and willcreate all references manually in future.
  • The article has been revised for neutrality (per WP:NPOV), and company-affiliated sources have been replaced with independent ones to meet WP:NORG. The reviewing editor also withdrew the previous reason cited for declining the draft - concern about promotional tone ("peacocking") on my talk page.
  • No further actual issues with the article are reported, and no additional avenues have been suggested.
  • I’ve acted in good faith (WP:Good faith), disclosed my COI (WP:COI), and followed WP:AFC procedures, as required. I also reached out to the reviewing editor and the AfC Help Desk, but received no reply.
  • I respectfully request that the article now be reviewed on its merits by an uninvolved editor.
  • @user:Caleb Stanford All of the above issues have been addressed. On point 4. - the NY Post article does not reference any substantive facts, but I've included it to give a sense of the presence of Furhat in popular culture. Please advise User:viljowf (talk)
  • Several neutral language adjustments
  • Incorporated additional secondary sources
  • Deleted Media coverage as requested User:viljowf (talk)
Furhat Robotics
Company typePrivate
IndustryRobotics, Artificial Intelligence
Founded2014
FounderSamer Al Moubayed
ProductsFurhat robot, Misty II, FurhatAI, Tengai
Websitefurhatrobotics.com mistyrobotics.com

Furhat Robotics is a Swedish social robotics company.[1] The company develops Furhat, a table-top humanoid social robot, and Misty II, a social robot used in healthcare and education.[2] Originally a spin-off company from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Furhat's platforms have been used academic research in fields such as cognitive science, psychology, human-computer interaction, and embodied AI. Its technology has also been used in applied contexts including customer service, education, healthcare, and recruitment.[3]

History

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Furhat Robotics was founded in 2014 by Samer Al Moubayed, Preben Wik, Jonas Beskow, and Gabriel Skantze, most of whom were affiliated with the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.[4][5] The company emerged from Al Moubayed's doctoral research in speech technology and artificial intelligence. He had previously studied computer science in Damascus, Syria, where he focused on emotional speech synthesis, and later completed a master’s degree in speech and language technology in Belgium before pursuing a PhD at KTH.[6]

While working on a social robot prototype at KTH, Al Moubayed gained support from KTH Innovation, which encouraged commercialization of academic research. After sharing a video of the robot online, Al Moubayed was contacted by Disney’s R&D team and subsequently traveled to Pittsburgh in 2014 to collaborate on development and receive user feedback. Later that year, he established Furhat Robotics in Stockholm with support from KTH and collaborators from Disney.[6]

By 2017, Furhat Robotics had 13 employees and reported having 50 customers, including companies such as Disney, Intel, Honda, Merck, KPMG, and Deutsche Telekom.[6] The company received $2.5 million in seed funding in September 2017 from London-based venture capital firms Balderton Capital and LocalGlobe.[7] In 2019, the company collaborated with the Swedish recruitment firm TNG to develop Tengai, a robot intended to support more structured and consistent interview processes.[4][8]

In January 2022, Furhat Robotics acquired Misty Robotics, a U.S.-based social robotics company - incorporating its product line and allowing it to use Misty's technologies in its own products. The acquisition was described by Furhat as complementing Furhat’s stationary robots with a mobile platform and broadening its hardware capabilities.[9] The acquisition allowed Furhat's to market its products in the education and healthcare domains, particularly in the U.S.[10][11]

As of 2025, the company's robotic platforms have been used by university research teams and companies in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East (see a full list of Furhat's research and commercial applications here).[12]

Products

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Furhat

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The Furhat robot is a humanoid bust that features a back-projected face capable of displaying a range of virtual characters.[13] It supports conversational interaction through voice, facial expressions, eye contact, and head movement.[3][8] Likened to an embodied version of voice assistants such as Siri or Alexa, Furhat combines spoken dialogue with real-time facial animation, enabling face-to-face interaction between robots and people.[13]

Misty

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Misty is a programmable social robot originally developed by the U.S.-based startup Misty Robotics, which was spun out of Sphero in 2018. The Misty II platform is used in education, research, and front-desk assistant roles. It has a mobile base, built-in sensors, and a customizable personality.[9]

Business model

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Furhat Robotics operates a platform-oriented business that enables third-party developers to create applications for its social robot interfaces.[3] The company generates revenue through a combination of hardware sales (mostly to universities and research teams), software development kit (SDK) licenses, and enterprise partnerships."ref name="wong"/> A 2021 study of social robotics in manufacturing environments noted Furhat among a small set of “industry leaders” piloting human-interaction-focused robots in real-world commercial contexts.[14]

The company combines proprietary hardware - a robotic head with a back-projected face - with a software development kit (SDK) and conversational operating system.[15] Developers can access the platform using tools such as Kotlin-based scripting, Python APIs, and non-code graphical builders, allowing for both advanced customization and accessibility for non-technical users.[16]

In addition to its proprietary tools, the platform supports integration with widely used third-party technologies, including text-to-speech (TTS) engines, automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, voice cloning, and large language models such as OpenAI's GPT-3.5.[17][18][12] Microsoft has also featured Furhat in demonstrations of its Copilot framework, illustrating human-robot interaction through generative AI.[12]

Tengai

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An example of Furhat’s platform strategy is the development of Tengai, a recruitment-focused robot built in collaboration with the Swedish hiring firm TNG.[19] Tengai was created using Furhat’s hardware and operating system but customized with its own personality and dialogue model for use in structured job interviews.[4] In 2019, Tengai was spun off into a separate company, Tengai AB, which continues to license Furhat’s technology and develop recruitment-specific applications.[20] This model — in which domain-specific software is developed by external partners or spin-offs using Furhat’s core platform — exemplifies third-party development via SDK and APIs.[21]

This strategy reflects a broader trend in robotics and AI startups adopting platform-based business models. Analysts at strategic foresight consultancy Rohrbeck Heger cite Furhat Robotics as an example of how startups can build developer ecosystems to accelerate innovation, drawing comparisons to platform strategies seen in other industries.[21]

Furhat conference series

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company started focusing on building a research community around its robotic platforms. [22] One of the outcomes was the Furhat Conference on Social Robotics - a recurring online event series. The Furhat Conference focuses on topics such as conversational AI, large language models, and human-robot interaction, with presentations from researchers, developers, and other contributors in the field.[23][24] The series began in 2021, and as of 2025, eight editions have been held, according to the company's website.[25]

Awards and recognition

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In 2019, Furhat Robotics was selected as a finalist in the Robotics and Hardware category at the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards.[26][27]

Furhat Robotics was among ten recipients of the Netexplo Innovation Award, presented during the Netexplo Forum at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.[28]

Research by KTH Royal Institute of Technology linked to the Furhat platform has also received academic recognition. In 2024, a study on conversational companion robots for older adults was selected as one of the Editor’s Picks by Frontiers in Robotics and AI, chosen from 261 articles published the previous year.[29][30]

References

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  1. ^ Hern, Alex. Ghost in the machine: the robot that can understand emotion. The Guardian, 16 April 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2018/apr/16/ghost-in-the-machine-the-robot-that-can-understand-emotion
  2. ^ McDill, Stuart (11 April 2025). "'Furhat' the robot's face-off with Alexa, Siri". Reuters Video – Editors’ Picks. Retrieved 5 May 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Rigg, Jamie (2018). "Furhat is a social robot for every situation – but could we ever really accept it?". Engadget. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
  4. ^ a b c BBC. 'Meet Tengai, the job interview robot.' https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47442953
  5. ^ Schenker, Jennifer (November 17, 2023). "Startup of the Week: Furhat Robotics". The Innovator. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Cohan, Peter (2017-09-21). "Disney And Intel Looking For Growth From This Stockholm Social Robot Maker". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
  7. ^ Seldon, Anthony (2017-09-14). "Sir Anthony Seldon's dystopian vision". Evening Standard.
  8. ^ a b Reuters. 'Furhat, a robot with the human touch, wants to hear your woes.' https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-robotics-idUSKCN1NX0U2
  9. ^ a b Heater, Brian (2022-01-20). "Pay Misty for me". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
  10. ^ TechCrunch. 'Post-acquisition, Misty Robotics pivots to education.' https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/31/post-acquisition-misty-robotics-pivots-to-education/
  11. ^ Daly, Charles (January 17, 2022). "Swedish Maker of 'Furhat' Social Robot Acquires Misty Robotics". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  12. ^ a b c Fast Company Middle East. "Advanced robots are coming to the UAE — and these innovative companies are building them." https://fastcompanyme.com/technology/advanced-robots-are-coming-to-the-uae-and-these-innovative-companies-are-building-them/
  13. ^ a b Vance, Ashlee (2016-04-27). "Hello World: Episode 2 Sweden". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
  14. ^ "Service Robots: Trends and Technology". Applied Sciences. 11 (22). MDPI: 1–12. 2021. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
  15. ^ Cohan, Peter (2017-09-21). "Disney And Intel Looking For Growth From This Stockholm Social Robot Maker". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
  16. ^ Hurley, James (2017-11-27). "Furhat Robotics says 'hello' to the acceptable face of artificial intelligence". The Times. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
  17. ^ Houser, Kristin (September 19, 2023). "First-of-its-kind robot receptionist is like ChatGPT with a face". Freethink. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  18. ^ TU Graz. 'Human Conversations with a Robotic Head.' https://www.tugraz.at/en/tu-graz/services/news-stories/tu-graz-news/singleview/article/menschliche-gespraeche-mit-einem-roboterkopf
  19. ^ Wong, Henry (9 March 2021). "How is the "world's most advanced social robot" designed?". Design Week. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
  20. ^ "AI robot Tengai spins off as separate company". Recruiter. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
  21. ^ a b Thorén, Kent; Kanov, Maria (2018-05-01). "The Strategic Use of Business Platforms". Rohrbeck Heger. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
  22. ^ Karlsson, Johannes (28 April 2020). "Guldregn över talande svensk robot – ska till Asien: "Corona ger ökad aptit"" [Windfall for Swedish Talking Robot – Heading to Asia: "Corona Increases Appetite"]. Dagens industri (in Swedish). Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  23. ^ "Furhat Conference on Social Robotics #5". My AI. Retrieved 2025-04-23.
  24. ^ "6:th Furhat Conference on social robotics". My AI. Retrieved 2025-04-23.
  25. ^ "Furhat Conference Series | Furhat Robotics".
  26. ^ "Announcing the 2019 SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards Finalists and Hall of Fame Inductee Kimberly Bryant". SXSW. 2019-01-16. Retrieved 2025-04-23.
  27. ^ "Furhat Robotics selected as finalist for coveted SXSW Innovation Award". Just Entrepreneurs. 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2025-04-23.
  28. ^ "Learning in the digital age, smart cities among innovations taking centre stage at UNESCO Netexplo Forum". UNESCO. 2019. Retrieved 2025-04-23.
  29. ^ Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, ed. (2025). Frontiers in Robotics and AI: Editor's Picks 2024. Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA. doi:10.3389/978-2-8325-5981-9. ISBN 978-2-8325-5981-9. Retrieved 2025-04-23.
  30. ^ Irfan, Bahar; Kuoppamäki, Sanna; Skantze, Gabriel (2024-05-27). "Recommendations for designing conversational companion robots with older adults through foundation models". Frontiers in Robotics and AI. 11. doi:10.3389/frobt.2024.1363713. PMC 11163135. PMID 38860032.
[edit]

Furhat Robotics Misty Robotics

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