APOGEE welcomed the quirky humanoid Mitra as a special guest to greet the opening ceremony’s chief guest and the enthusiastic Pilani crowd. Made of a special breed of intelligence, the indigenous robot stands five feet tall and was developed by Invento Robotics, a Bengaluru based start-up. It is a symbol of the progress of human technology, and arguably bridges the gap between innate human intelligence and programmable machine intellect. APOGEE welcomed the quirky humanoid Mitra as a special guest to greet the opening ceremony’s chief guest and the enthusiastic Pilani crowd. Made of a special breed of intelligence, the indigenous robot stands five feet tall and was developed by Invento Robotics, a Bengaluru based start-up. It is a symbol of the progress of human technology, and arguably bridges the gap between innate human intelligence and programmable machine intellect.

Invento Robotics was founded just over a year ago when the founders wanted to change education with a maker-centric approach. When an old robot they made garnered widespread attention at a technical fair, they realized that demonstrating a proof of concept was in order. This proof of concept is now walking around and performing tasks independently in major institutions like Canara Bank and PVR Cinemas.
Mitra has now evolved into a form of Google:  what Google does for the online world, Mitra does for the offline world. Companies use the robot to help in customer targeting, to speak to consumers and Google does for the online world, Mitra does for the offline world. Companies use the robot to help in customer targeting, to speak to consumers and filter out their preferences, and other analytical tasks.

Stepping away from the corporate arena, Mitra has also managed to find usage by the general public. People have rented it out for birthday parties, weddings, and other large occasions. It moves around like a large jukebox that plays songs, takes pictures, and even tweets them if required.

The success of Mitra has inspired Invento to create a female version of the robot. While Mitra comes equipped with a tablet, the new Mitri will have a tray. While this move may be viewed as sexist, the company assured the public that it was only done because most servers in Indian restaurants were male. The logic behind the statement is currently in question and the concept of Mitri might need to be altered.