Betwixt Industry and Vision?

Robots on the catwalk? In the last few days, I’ve received some critical feedback for a LinkedIn post. Even though I usually avoid emotional “ad-hoc” responses – the comments from people with whom I have been on friendly terms for a long time are of course something I take to heart. Especially when it comes to a topic that also regularly concerns us internally at Neura Robotics.

The criticism was triggered by pictures showing our humanoid robot 4NE-1 wearing clothes and striking poses reminiscent of models on the catwalk. No, the criticism was not about whether robots should wear clothes at all and be humanized in this way. This would be precisely the discussion we want to initiate with such images, among other things: What roles may and should cognitive or intelligent, humanoid robots play in our society in the future? Robotics and AI today are comparatively at the stage that the Internet was at in the early 2000s – a time when we in Germany missed having many important debates around this new medium, which then literally overtook us as a society.

The criticism that reached me had a completely different background. It was about whether we (Neura Robotics) should not focus more on the here and now and address industrial applications instead of drawing overly visionary pictures of the future.

So is this a matter of finding the perfect balance between vision and down-to-earth applications for the present in industry?

I am convinced that it would be wrong to make any distinction at all here. There is neither a “balancing act” nor an “either-or” nor a “between the chairs”. This is precisely the recipe for success that we at Neura have used to develop our own components, software and products in a very short time. The great visions and the firm will to work on the future have not only brought us the all-important public attention. Our courageous look to tomorrow is also the main reason why we at Neura have no problem finding young and highly qualified specialists. People are highly motivated because they know that we are developing technology for tomorrow – and that we’re not using yesterday’s standards to solve today’s problems. You could describe our formula like this: Vision equals motivation.

But this aspect is only half the story. Because in our day-to-day work at Neura, we make no distinction at all between visions – such as a humanoid robot on the catwalk – and resilient cognitive robotics applications for today’s industry. If you take a close look at our industrial products such as MAiRA, LARA and MAV, you will see that the future is already built in today and that our industrial partners are already benefiting in a very real way from visions such as 4NE-1 and MiPA. What distinguishes two perfectly interacting cognitive MAiRA arms working together to mount a windshield on a car from the arms of our humanoid robot carrying a tray with two glasses?

So my most important message within Neura Robotics is one I want to make very clear to the public – to all our partners, friends and also the trade press: At Neura, we make no distinction between present and vision. We are focused on the future and are so good and fast at it that today and now – after only three years of company history – we can already offer many industrial applications that set benchmarks in terms of precision, resilience, safety and speed. Precisely because their development was driven by vision, our technology is already fit for the future.

So when we “stage” the 4NE-1 humanoid robot as a model, it’s certainly not a significant statement about where the focus is at Neura Robotics. Rather, we want to use such images to exemplify that we will soon encounter humanoid robots literally everywhere. In any case, they are not a statement of where our focus as a tech company lies. On the other hand, we are happy about anyone who discovers a certain local patriotism in these motifs. After all, Neura Robotics’ headquarters are located in the well-known fashion outlet city of Metzingen.