Designed and built a customized robot for a”Harrods” style department store in Kuwait. The commission seemed simple enough until the robot was in the store, when religious protocol came into play; the robot was unrobed so we had to clothe him.
The second problem was that visitors to the store totally believed the reality of this robot, I suppose that was a compliment and in the first week of operation they had over a dozen potential orders, the store was to embarrass too explain the difference between a real and a show robot.
This is not the first time this has happened, in fact its happened all over the world, because this is the aim of a good show robot. Just like a magician our job is to amaze the public, the difference in this situation was that any projected price for such a marvel was not the problem, the problem was we did not have the technology at that time to make this fantasy into a reality.
It was left to me to break the news to some very upset and influential clients, in affect we learned some valuable lessons and continued the promotion by openly walking along side the robot with the remote controller in full view.
