Enchanted Tools

Enchanted Tools was founded in Paris in 2021, and behind the project are Jérôme Monceaux, co-creator of the NAO and Pepper robots from the Aldebaran and SoftBank Robotics era, and Samuel Benveniste. It is a pedigree that impresses in this industry: anyone who remembers Pepper in shopping malls knows what class of social robot we mean. The company raised EUR 17 million in a seed round, described as the largest of its kind in the history of French robotics, and employs around 100 people. It is developing Mirokaï, a social robot that moves on a balancing ball, with no legs, intended for healthcare, hospitality and retail. The first commercial deployment went to the French research institute ISIR in Paris, as reported by The Robot Report. It is still a pilot stage, not mass sales, and the company discloses nothing more, so we do not speculate about how many customers it has today. The market already knows social robots of this class, such as Pepper, so Enchanted Tools must prove that a balancing ball and richer hand mechanics give the customer something more than earlier designs.

The portfolio is one robot: Mirokaï. It stands 123 cm tall, weighs about 29 kg, has 26 degrees of freedom (including 2 in each hand), a 3 kg payload, a speed of up to 0.89 m/s and four hours of battery life. Instead of legs or wheels it uses a patented ballbot base that balances on a ball, giving movement in every direction without the risk and cost of bipedal locomotion. Sensors include 2 RGBD cameras, 9 ToF cameras, 6 ultrasonic sensors and 8 torque sensors. The price of about USD 30,000 comes from the aggregator, not from the manufacturer's price list, so treat it as indicative. Category: “Service robots” (service robots); uses: “Hospitals and rehabilitation” (hospital), hotels and retail (retail). More on DOF: “Degrees of Freedom (DOF) in Humanoid Robots”. The specifications show a trade-off: modest height and low payload mean Mirokaï communicates and assists more than it carries loads. For hotels and retail that is an advantage, because the robot is meant to be noticed and liked, not merely useful. Against delivery robots the difference in philosophy is clear, as with Pudu BellaBot.

Mirokaï is the natural successor to Pepper in the social-robot segment, and Pepper and NAO come from Aldebaran. Other reference points are PAL Robotics ARI from PAL Robotics, SoftBank Robotics Whiz from SoftBank Robotics and temi V3 from Robotemi Global. On funding the company stands out with a strong start: EUR 17 million in the seed round. It does not yet have many customers: the first known buyer is ISIR. Its strength is an expressive upper torso with less risk of falling than bipedal robots; its weakness is the 3 kg payload and the reach that comes with its small stature. Buyers are institutions, not individual customers, and there is no company valuation. The advantage the firm is building on its founder's experience is meant to be hands with two degrees of freedom in the palm and omnidirectional movement on a ball. Customers order it mainly as a pilot, so the breakthrough will come only with several independently described deployments.

Availability of Mirokaï in Poland is not confirmed: we found no Polish distributor and no deployment in the country. The manufacturer directs its offer to institutions, so the first step for a Polish hospital, hotel or retail chain would be to contact the Paris company directly, with uncertain service support. How service robots are entering Polish hotels and restaurants is covered in “Service Robots in Restaurants and Hotels”, and a map of local players is in “Polish Robotics Companies”. Funding options, including Poland's robotization tax relief (ulga na robotyzację), are discussed in “Poland's Robotization Tax Relief”. Until an offer appears in Poland, it makes sense to compare locally available service robots, described in the service robots category.

Mirokaï is an intriguing social robot with a strong pedigree and a good funding story, but still at the pilot stage, with a price from a secondary source and no confirmed availability in Poland. Worth watching as an alternative to Pepper. For a Polish institution it is still a topic for next year, not for the current budget. We are waiting for further deployments beyond ISIR that will show the robot's real value, and for a price confirmed directly by the manufacturer.