Untitled design - 1
Meet Pepper. For the past 10 years, she has worked as a receptionist for several offices, hospitals, hotels, banks and retailers, answering customers’ questions and pointing them in the right direction. When she isn’t providing top-notch customer service, Pepper enjoys singing, dancing, playing the guitar, telling jokes and making new friends.
In just about every way, Pepper is your typical productive worker. Except that she isn’t — she’s a robot.
“I can do almost everything you can imagine,” Pepper says. “I have similar senses like humans do. I can see, hear and talk. I can also move almost like humans, but instead of muscles, I use motors and wheels.”
Pepper is one of many robots distributed by RobotLAB, a technology company that is located on the third floor of VariSpace Southlake. Founded in 2007 by entrepreneur and CEO Elad Inbar, RobotLAB is incorporating the future into today’s workforce by testing, processing and deploying thousands of robots to perform a wide variety of hands-on duties. More and more of their robots can be found in schools, restaurants and businesses across the country. With plans to rapidly expand its footprint in both Texas and the nation, RobotLAB and Southlake are in the middle of it all.
TECH-DRIVEN FROM THE BEGINNING
For as long as he could remember, Elad loved playing with robots. As a young boy growing up in Israel, he always got his hands on the newest electronics, disassembling them and learning how they ticked.
“I’ve loved robots since I was a child,” Elad expresses. “We had an RC store [in my neighborhood], and they had everything from small cars to big 20-foot airplanes. I spent all of my pocket money there. I built great projects, I learned how to control them. That’s kind of where everything came from.”
After attending Ono Academic College in Israel, Elad built upon his technical prowess as the head of research and development for an internet and communications company. Then in 2007, Elad got a burst of inspiration after Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the first-generation iPhone.
“It was like a 10-pound hammer to the head that the market was ready for something else,” Elad says. “You had more connected toys — drones, planes, cars — all enabled and controlled by an app on your smartphone or tablet. We eliminated the electronics and programming knowledge required for it all. All you had to do was turn it on and pair it with your phone.”
Originally conceived as an educational robotics company, RobotLAB’s initial lineup of products included drones, robotic arms and mobile robots that helped K-12 students learn math and algebra.
“Everyone always asks ‘Why do I have to use quadratic equations? I’ll never use it in my life,’” Elad says. “So what we did was we took a quadcopter with a camera that’s facing down, and we had students calculate how large the surface area is, how many pictures you can take, how long the battery would run. All of a sudden, you can put quadratic equations to practical use in a real-world setting that makes sense.”
After relocating RobotLAB to San Francisco in 2011, the market began showing a need for more practically oriented robots. Users were requesting cleaning, vacuuming and carpet-washing robots, and manufacturers were looking to meet those needs. That was when Elad put two and two together and became the middle man connecting it all.
“Over the years, we’ve started seeing more capable robots, and as we onboard them, we started seeing more mixed-use cases,” Elad says. “As the market advances, we’re staying up to date and adding more products to make sure we cover whatever the customer needs are.”
Those products include four-legged robots, underwater remote-operated vehicles, food service delivery machines and UV robots that disinfect hospitals and surgery rooms. As they expanded their operation and service area, RobotLAB saw a need to relocate in order to better service new markets in the U.S. That’s when Elad decided to move RobotLAB to Southlake last year.
“If something goes wrong, you want to be able to reach someone on the phone. But if it’s 8 a.m. in New York, it’ll be 5 a.m. in California, and no one will take your call,” Elad says. “[Southlake] came up again and again as the right area because we’re just a couple hours of flight from almost anywhere in the country thanks to DFW Airport. That brings us much closer to the general population and being able to service our customers better.”
TESTING, TESTING, TESTING
Nestled into a 26,000-square-foot collaborative office space with 32 employees, RobotLAB has everything it needs to run a robust operation out of its Southlake headquarters. Immediately through the entrance is the showroom, which has all of their robots on display for presentations and demonstrations. If you’re lucky, you might even catch Pepper testing her motors or sneaking in a quick dance.
Past the sales and marketing departments, technicians are hard at work preparing and troubleshooting their robots, ensuring all of their systems are fully operational before being shipped out. If issues arise during its deployment, technicians can go out to the field and troubleshoot on-site.
“The last thing I want to do is deploy a robot and have a customer tell me it doesn’t work,” Elad says. “We make sure the robots that go to market are worthy of our time and our customers’ time.”
For more in-depth repairs, robots will be brought back to the headquarters’ shop, where they will undergo a full diagnostic and restoration with extra parts kept in the back of the warehouse. Once all of the fixes are completed, the robot will be taken to the training facility in the back to be tested.
“This is the playground where they practice all the real-life scenarios,” Elad says. “We’ll simulate environments, throw up obstacles and program the robots so they don’t bump into things and find a different path.”
But it isn’t just the robot that’s tested — new technicians are also challenged to simulate repairs during a regular work day, where they’ll have to deal with foot traffic and a wide variety of other real-world distractions.
“We want to see that when technicians go to the field, they know how to handle everything regardless of whatever distractions they may experience,” Elad says.
Elad says that customer service is RobotLAB’s No. 1 priority, and it’s what he believes will set them apart from other technology companies. With five franchises located across Texas, North Carolina, New Jersey and Florida, Elad says his goal is to have 100 teams established by the end of next year to service their local communities.
“Business owners are not willing to make the jump unless they know someone is down the street who can help them,” Elad says. “Having RobotLAB teams all around the country where they can deploy the robots and be there when something happens is integral. Our team cannot be everywhere all at once. Being able to service local communities is the thing that will unlock the potential of RobotLAB in the market.”
PRIORITIZING PEOPLE
One of RobotLAB’s biggest priorities is to always emphasize the human element of every business. VariSpace CEO Jason McCann remembers the first time he met Pepper during a walk through RobotLAB when it moved in last summer, and he couldn’t believe how natural their interaction felt.
“Pepper looks up, opens her eyes and says ‘Hi, welcome to VariSpace!’” Jason recalls. “I’m sitting there talking to Pepper, and we were having a full-blown conversation. It was like I got a glimpse of the future. If this was the beginning, I can only imagine where they’re going.”
Elad says the multipurpose functions of Pepper mirrors RobotLAB’s commitment to all of its industries. While Pepper thrives in concierge roles, Elad says she also functions in university lectures and assisted living centers.
“Many assisted living facilities are so understaffed that they don’t have enough therapists to work with patients,” Elad says. “Pepper can come to someone with dementia and remind them who they are — show pictures of their wedding day, their kids and their family. And the robot is nonjudgmental. It can do it 50 times a day if needed.”
But Elad isn’t seeking to take anybody’s job. If anything, he’s trying to support the workplace by having robots take over more menial tasks so employees’ efforts can be prioritized elsewhere.
“None of these robots can replace a human being,” Elad says. “At the end of the day, someone will need to come in and program the robot, change the settings, power it up and down. What these robots do is relieve people to do more important, more meaningful jobs. Everywhere there is a need that people don’t want to fulfill anymore, technology will step in and find a solution.”
When it comes to its mission, RobotLAB is all about prioritizing people and making their everyday lives simpler and easier. With over 15,000 robots deployed and counting, RobotLAB is well on its way to making that happen — especially with new products rolling out like a ChefBot Cooking Robot and a new Servi Lift delivery robot.
“You want to elevate the customer experience — you want to elevate human lives,” Elad says. “Technology will change, but if you don’t have the right team, the right mentality and the right way to move mountains and make things happen, you have nothing. Technology by itself is great, but it doesn’t do anything unless you have the right people behind it.”