In Start-Up Chile, a group of entrepreneurs presented Sima, a social and interactive robot developed in Latin America to promote learning.
Felipe Araya is CEO and founder of Sima. He explains that “Sima interacts with human beings through physical conversation and gestures.” These features of the robot have been directed to be an educational robot. “To be a tool in the classroom that delivers quality content and education.”
Engineer Felipe Araya and educator Virginia Dias founded Sima in 2016, These Chilean entrepreneurs realized that in Latin America there were no social robots, which become common in Asia.
When developing the prototype of Sima, the entrepreneurs realized that it would be a success, but at the same time, they needed to improve several aspects of their product. This problem was evident when they observed that the children hugged the robot.
“We did not expect it. We manage the theory of interaction, socialization, development of emotional and social competencies, among other things, but we do not think what would happen in the real interaction “, says Araya.
This feedback led them to improve their product so that it was more resistant and had no visible cables. After the improvements, the founders of Sima looked for the way so that the professors could integrate the robot in the classroom.
There are many educational applications, but in a virtual world where the interface is the screen. Instead, here the interface is an entity that can move, speak and communicate through gestures and expressions. More than 80% of communication is non-verbal, and we seek to enhance this, “explains Araya.
Sima is delivered to schools with school plans according to the curriculum plan.
“We charge an annual service, consisting of access to the content generation platform to the school plans for the use of the robot within the classroom, with recommendations for use. In addition to several robots ready to use, “says Araya.
Sima is used in kindergartens even in the United States.