In the past year alone, high-tech robots have starred in Hollywood films, competed on Jeopardy and performed comedy routines.
Yet for enthusiasts, no retailers in the United States specialize exclusively in the sale and maintenance of robots. White Plains entrepreneur Rick Hyland, founder of Real Robotics, plans to buck that trend.
Hyland, who helped launch the popular website Priceline.com and who teaches finance at Westchester Community College, has no misconceptions about the challenges that lie ahead for Real Robotics.
“What we”™re doing is a very significant endeavor,” he said. “We”™ll be the first consumer robotics store in the U.S.”
Initially, he had planned to self-finance and launch the store in October, but his own funding plans fell through.
After speaking with academics and technical experts in the field of robotics and finding that the demand for consumer robotics products would be high, Hyland now aims to attract investors and envisions opening from 10 to 12 stores across the country.
“I”™ve got a potential investor interested in the company,” he said. “In order to do it really well, I need additional capital.” Once financing is secured and his business plan is finalized, it would take roughly six months to open the first Real Robotics stores, Hyland said.
The plan for Real Robotics was hatched when Hyland found what he thought was a robotics store at the Palisades Mall in West Nyack, only to discover that it was no more than a glorified toy store.
“I thought, ”˜Someone should create a real robot store. Our research shows that there is a significant untapped demand for these products.”
Hyland compared shopping for robots to shopping for cars. Few people will purchase a car without first taking it for a test drive. Robots, he said, are the same.
“Right now, the only place you can buy robots is online,” Hyland said. “There”™s no one-stop retailer.”
One robot that Hyland expects to stock in his stores is the Nao, a fully interactive humanoid robot developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics. The Nao, which Aldebaran expects to market later this year at a retail price of $15,000, made headlines last year for its performances of a synchronized dance routine in addition to a pre-programmed stand-up comedy act.
Bala Krishnamurthy, CEO of Aeolean Inc., a software and electronics consulting company in Ridgefield, Conn., said she would be excited to see a consumer robotics store open.“I think it”™s a great idea and I think it”™ll take off,” she said.
Krishnamurthy, a nationally-renowned robotics expert and 2007 recipient of the prestigious Engelberger Robotics Award, said that she thinks the store will be particularly popular among youths. “I think that”™s going to be useful even for young people who want to play with robots,” she said. “That way when they grow up, they”™re going to be less afraid of these machines.”
Success for Real Robotics will require the creation of completely new job categories, Hyland said, such as positions in consumer robotics repair and support that currently exist only at the industrial level.
Working with Hyland and his operations manager, Gricel Vettese, is a group of 18 student interns. For the next 60 days, the Real Robotics team will concentrate entirely on creating an in-depth business plan in hopes of drawing investors.
“At the end of the day, the biggest goal is to attract funding,” Hyland said.
The start-up entrepreneur is researching and selecting locations in which to open stores. He expects to open at least two stores on the West Coast, three in the South and three in the Northeast.
