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LG unveils new concept robots for carrying your drinks, suitcase, and shopping

LG unveils new concept robots for carrying your drinks, suitcase, and shopping

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The trio have been designed to work in hotels, airports, and shops

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LG is intent on making useful robots. Last year at CES it unveiled a pair of bots designed to clean up in airports and help travelers find their way around. Today, it announced a trio of new robots designed to help carry stuff — from drinks to suitcases to shopping.

Technical details on the three bots are sparse (including how big they are and how fast they move), but judging by their pictures, they’re shorter than humans, with some sort of hidden wheelbase for movement. There have built-in displays, presumably for providing information and receiving instructions, and have the same bright-eye robot face the company used for its home hub robot. For comparison, here’s LG’s airport guide robot:

LG’s airport guide robot, unveiled at CES last year.
LG’s airport guide robot, unveiled at CES last year.
Image: LG

The bots will be part of LG’s new “CLOi” range — the new brand for all its robot products. From left to right in the picture at the top of the page, there’s the CLOi serving robot, which has a built-in sliding tray and will deliver food and drinks in hotels and airports; the CLOi porter robot, which will tote luggage and can also handle “express check-in and check-out services”; and the CLOi shopping robot, which will follow customers around stores, collecting their shopping for them and totting up their prices.

All three are “concept” robots, meaning they’re not on general sale. But, presumably, LG will start trialling them in places pretty soon. Its two airport robots are already being tested out in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, with an eye to helping out during the rush for the Winter Olympics in neighboring Pyeongchang County. We’ll be seeing more of the new CLOi robots at CES next week, so watch out for more.