A Nigerian tech company in Abuja, Uniccon Group, has built Africa’s first humanoid Robot and named it ‘Omeife’.
Omeife is a 6 foot tall human-like robot that can speak 8 different languages including Igbo, English, French, Arabic, Kiswahili, Pidgin, Wazobia, and Afrikaans.
The idea for the robot began in 2020 and has been in development ever since. Omeife is run by Artificial intelligence also developed in Nigeria by Uniccon scientists.
The AI enables it to react in real time to the terrain and also conversation and voice prompts.
The CEO of the company Chuks Ekwueme has said the robot understands gestures also but has no facial expressions as a matter of preference by the makers.
His words:
“It’s not just multilingual, it has the ability to switch languages and interact with specific gestures—hand illustrations, smile and other bodily gestures—that match the tone of the conversation.”
Dockaysworld learnt that the robot’s nature is programmed to be African and avoid rude remarks while remaining polite and respectful.
Omeife can move around flat surfaces and also grip items. Though robots are being developed to carry out human labour, the journey so far remains slow with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ‘Optimus’ being another example. The robot can barely complete human tasks.
According to the CEO, Omeife is not built primarily for labour rather for intellectual capabilities.
While other African humanoid robot developments have been in the works before Omeife, Uniccon group is the first to announce its completion.
The company plans to produce the robot in bulk and sell for at least $30,000.
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This is a good one. The development starts gradually. We expect improvement and sophisticated outing very soon. Carry on and bravo.
How can I be a part of this .. I’m an aspiring robotics Engineer .. pls put me through to the right channels . Thanks