a robotic being

you want to be with

navel is a social robot of the next generation

What makes navel special?

Through the interplay of deep tech and innovative interaction design, navel has unique social capabilities and offers a new form of user experience.

Simply enjoy the presence of the sympathetic robot figure navel and don’t worry about how navel has to be “operated”. Because navel communicates with you in a completely natural way.

We are proud to have won the Digital Health Award 2024 with navel! This underlines the revolutionary role that robotics and AI will play in the healthcare sector – especially if it can be enhanced with human warmth and empathy.

Almost 100 applicants from the digital startup environment took part. The discussions with the high-caliber jury and the Federal Ministry of Health were very helpful.

What our customers and users in care homes say about Navel

navel has been in use in several care homes in Germany since fall 2023. Both the residents and the nursing staff are delighted with navel, have a lot of fun and say things like:

  • “Navel creates a good atmosphere here”
  • “You can have a really good chat with him”
  • “a funny little guy with such a nice hat and blue eyes”
  • “not just a toy, but he can really do something”

The following film shows excerpts from reports on various television stations. Although the film is in German, you should be able to experience the effect of navel. Incidentally, the care homes give Navel his own names such as “Emma”, “Ricky” or “Oskar”, thus ensuring that navel is even more integrated as a friendly companion.

a single glance says
more than 1000 words

In which fields can navel be used?

As a research robot, navel enables research into new methods in social human-robot interaction.

As a care robot, navel autonomously activates people in need of care, increases their well-being and relieves caregivers.

As a service robot, e.g. in retail, navel arouses sympathy and at the same time offers helpful information and services.

This makes navel different from other social robots

Use Cases

for your specific requirement

navel

care

navel has been used in several nursing homes since October 2023. Thanks to its empathic abilities and the integration of large language models, navel provides additional emotional and cognitive activation.

Find out more about navel in care here.

If you are interested in purchasing the robot for participation in navel care pilot projects, please contact us.

navel

research

Researchers and developers get full access to all navel‘s capabilities:

Python SDK to program custom behaviour with direct access to all functions
– all high- and low-level data
– video and audio streams
– all actuators (locomotion, head and arm movement, voice output, …)

Browser application to control the robot without programming
– for quick Wizard-of-Oz tests
– Basic emotions, gestures and sequences
– own libraries can be created

For questions and orders please contact us.

Technology

Software

OS
Linux

Computer Vision (10fps)
Face detection
Person identification
Emotion recognition
Head pose
Eye gaze

Sound Processing
Sound source localization
Beam forming

Natural Language Processing
STT: via cloud service e.g. Google
TTS: Acapela (30 languages)
Dialog Manager: LLM based e.g. GPT

Navigation
SLAM (in planning)
Socially aware proxemics

SDK
Python SDK

GUI
navel control studio

Hardware

SoC
NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Xavier
15 GB for user data

Cameras
Head: 80° 720P 60 fps Global Shutter
Body: 160° 720P 60 fps Global Shutter

Microfones
3D array comprised of 7 microfones

3D Sensors
Intel® RealSense™ Depth Module D430
2x Lidar sensors
3x Sonar sensors

Displays
3x Round displays
3x 3d lenses

Motors
Head: 3x quiet gimbal motors
Drive: 2x 65 W motors
Shoulder: 2x Servo motors
Tilt: 2x linear motors

Speaker
2x 4 W Broadband loudspeaker 

Battery
288 Wh Li-Ion Batteries

Connectivity
LAN
WLAN

Size
Height 72 cm

Weight
8 kg

Cap
Wool

navel - der soziale Roboter

Please contact us for a quote or questions