Mitra: An Indian Robot That Greets You With A ‘Namaste’

• Mitra greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Hyderabad
• It is a made-in-India robot designed by Balaji Viswanathan and his 14-member team
• The Indian robot can be rented for interactive sessions at offices, hotels and private birthday parties, through www.mitrarobot.com

Mitra is an indigenous humanoid robot made of fiberglass. It has been programmed to greet customers and interact using facial and speech recognition, contextual help, and autonomous navigation. The robot greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Hyderabad.

ALSO READ: Robots to be controlled by human minds

Indian Robot

Mitra and its partner were the two bots designed by Balaji Viswanathan and his 14-member team, who domestically sourced all the parts except for the chips needed to build them. The Indian robot is serving humans in a few Canara Bank branches as well as P.V.R Cinema outlets in Bengaluru.

Robot Price In India

One can rent the robot for interactive sessions at offices, hotels and private birthday parties, through www.mitrarobot.com.

Home Robot

All work and no play might make Mitra dull. While one day might entail engaging with our Prime Minister and the U.S President's daughter, another day might see the humanoid have fun. Says Vishwanathan to the Economic Times, "People rent out Mitra for weddings and birthday parties. It moves around like a loud jukebox playing songs, takes pictures, also tweets those out if you want it to."

ALSO READ: Robot journalist: Will IQ outsmart EQ now?

Global Entrepreneurship Summit

Things didn't go as planned for Invento CEO Balaji Viswanathan at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017. Both Ivanka Trump and Prime Minister Modi were supposed to separately press a button each on the robot's touch display. However, both of them pressed the buttons at the same time. A few awkward seconds of silence later, one of them raised a finger again, and the device registered.