How to Operate Promotional Robots with Minimal Technical Knowledge

A popular notion suggests that a robot is always a complicated technology. Most of the time it is referred to as less ‘familiar’ forms of robots, however. After all, our technologies, be that a Roomba, a voicemail box, or a smartphone, are robots too and they can be configured and used without any problems. 

While we found a way to communicate with our appliances, other types of robots only appear more and more unfriendly. Often it relates to service robots ― ones that have humanoid features, e.g. head, body, arms.

Once a decision is made to purchase such a robot, there is also a sense of uncertainty as far as how to operate it. In reality, even a teenager can handle most services and setup tasks related to it.

1. Initial setup

There are two ways to set up and activate your robot: you can do it yourself or let trained people do it.

A Promobot robot, for example, can be activated and set up from the beginning with the help of Promobot’s technical support. Company specialists explain the process step-by-step and can access the robot remotely if that is necessary.

This allows the user to press one button and just follow the instructions. Any experience in communicating with technical support is helpful, even if it comes down to assembling an IKEA cabinet over the phone just once (because who needs instructions, right?). 

2. Upload info into the robot

Promotion robots can present different content that has to be uploaded in their memory. That includes promotional phrases, audio, video files, and pictures. Promobot robots can be equipped with dances ― special scripts for movements that can be performed by the robot. 

In order to make the info upload process easier, different companies offer their own platforms. All types of media could be uploaded as easily as photos on Instagram through them. You can upload a file and it will be presented by the robot in just a few seconds. There are also web services where new moves, dances, and other movement scenarios can be created for robots ― easy as pie.

People can teach robots how to dance without any technical knowledge. The process of uploading dances takes a few minutes ― much less than teaching real people the moves. 

3. Troubleshooting

Even the most reliable tech can sometimes malfunction. It is important to find the issue and quickly troubleshoot it. Any technical malfunctions in Promobot robots can be fixed remotely by the company’s technical specialists ― sometimes robot owners don’t even know that their robot was not working correctly and the issue is solved already.

Even if people have to troubleshoot on their own, it is never an impossible task. The world’s largest mall in Dubai had a situation in their work with the robot:

"After a while, and it happened long after the Promobot specialists visited us for the initial installation of the robot, we needed to interact with the robot’s mechanisms underneath the protective plastic parts. Our manager at that time was not a technical person at all, and she had to work with the technical support, use videos and photos to almost entirely disassemble the robot’s hand, find and fix the issue and then reassemble it again. Everything went well, the hand was working again and while it was happening it looked super badass."