Mirokaï

What it's for

Mirokaï from the French company Enchanted Tools is a robot barely taller than a ten-year-old - 123 centimeters - with an expressive face and two arms; instead of legs it has a ball on which it glides smoothly in any direction. It is not a machine for lifting pallets but a social robot - it is meant to be visible, easy to read and reassuring.

The manufacturer targets three worlds. The first is healthcare: hospitals and care homes (hospitals), where the robot can approach patients, guide them, fetch light items of up to 3 kg and relieve staff of simple, repetitive tasks. The second is hospitality: hotels and airports, covered in more depth in “Service Robots in Restaurants and Hotels” - greeting guests, giving directions, chatting. The third is retail (retail), where an expressive face and gestures are meant to draw in customers.

The ball instead of legs has its reasons. A bipedal robot (humanoid robots) has to fight for balance all the time, and a fall means cost and risk for the people around it. The ballbot lets Mirokaï travel in any direction without turning its chassis and, according to the manufacturer, without the tipping-over risk inherent in bipedal designs. The price of that advantage is limited speed (up to 0.89 m/s, or walking pace) and an arm reach limited by its small stature.

The sensors are impressive: two RGBD cameras, two infrared cameras, nine ToF cameras, six ultrasonic sensors, four microphones, eight torque sensors and three IMUs. It is a kit for working among people, not behind a barrier. How a robot's "senses" are assembled from such sensors is explained in “How Does a Humanoid Robot Work”.

Who it's for

Yes: for institutions that are testing human-robot interaction and have a budget for a pilot project - hospitals, care homes, large hotels, airports, research centers. Mirokaï makes sense where contact with people matters and the physical work is light: handing something over, guiding, greeting, striking up a conversation.

No: for anyone looking for a robot to do real physical work. A 3 kg payload and four hours on a battery are too little for a shift in a warehouse or factory. Nor is it a toy for an individual customer - the manufacturer points to institutions, not households. If you need an inexpensive reception robot, reach for lighter solutions from the service robots category. If a robot with legs matters to you, look at humanoid robots. And one more thing: a robot with cameras in a hospital or hotel is a GDPR issue, so read “Data Security: Robots with Cameras and the GDPR” before deploying.

Deployments

There is one confirmed deployment: the ISIR institute in Paris, as the first customer, for research on human-robot interaction. The manufacturer positions the robot in hospitals, care homes, hotels and airports, but we found no named institutions other than ISIR.

What exists in the category: service robots such as the Pudu BellaBot (56,205 PLN (≈ EUR 12,880), available in Poland from several sellers, up to 40 kg payload) are already working in Polish restaurants, as described in “Service Robots in Restaurants and Hotels”. It is a different kind of robot - a tray on wheels - but it shows that the market exists and that Polish companies do buy service robots.

The closest competitor in spirit, and a "relative", is Pepper: Pepper, co-created by Jérôme Monceaux back at Aldebaran/SoftBank, was withdrawn from production in 2024 after about 27,000 units, so today it is more a secondary-market option and a point of reference than something to buy.

PAL Robotics ARI from PAL Robotics stands 165 cm, speaks more than 20 languages and is used for reception and interaction research; price on request, but the greater height gives a different eye contact with guests.

temi V3 is the cheapest option: from $4,499 (about 17,400 PLN (≈ EUR 3,990)), also on a subscription from $125 a month. It is a screen on wheels, with no arms - for reception and telepresence, not for gestures.

Diligent Moxi 2.0 plays in a different league of tasks: a hospital logistics robot with more than a million deliveries, priced only under a service model. If the hospital job is transporting supplies rather than conversation, it is closer to the goal.

LG CLOi GuideBot ($39,990) guides visitors and shows content on two 27-inch screens; it is more practical for airports and shopping centers, though less "human".

Enchanted Tools was founded in Paris in 2021. It was set up by Jérôme Monceaux, earlier a co-creator of the NAO and Pepper robots in the Aldebaran era and then at SoftBank Robotics (SoftBank Robotics). That heritage shows in Mirokaï: an emphasis on expression, the face and natural contact.

The company raised 17 million euros in a seed round that sources describe as the largest early-stage round in the history of French robotics (Enchanted Tools). The first customer was the ISIR research institute in Paris, where the robot went into research on human-machine interaction - and that moment is regarded as the first deployment. Reliable sources do not give full generations or dates of later versions.