A Robot as an Assistant
for Estate Agents

SAM makes view­ing flats and offices child’s play: quite liter­al­ly through gami­fi­ca­tion with an aha effect. SAM is a remote-controlled, semi-autonomous robot — the first of its kind. After the Meta­verse, we today have the plea­sure of present­ing SAM, anoth­er future tech­nol­o­gy for prop­er­ty market­ing, in the Valdivia Expert Tips. And once you have expe­ri­enced SAM, you will quick­ly realise that it is more than just a gimmick.

A Swiss with Amer­i­can roots

SAM does­n’t look partic­u­lar­ly futur­is­tic, but it is very func­tion­al. It moves quiet­ly on three wheels and surveys its surround­ings through a high-qual­i­ty camera eye with zoom and wide-angle func­tions, mount­ed on a pole at a height of around 1.6 metres. The hard­ware plat­form comes from Cali­for­nia, the exper­tise for the prop­er­ty tour from Swiss soft­ware devel­op­er Alexan­dros Tyropolis.

SAM can be controlled using a joystick, mouse, PC or smart­phone, and is so easy to use that prac­ti­cal­ly anyone can get to grips with it. The robot can avoid obsta­cles, drive over round­ed thresh­olds and return to its charg­ing station inde­pen­dent­ly. Only steps and angu­lar thresh­olds cannot yet be nego­ti­at­ed by the current model; howev­er, the manu­fac­tur­er is now work­ing on a follow-up model that can over­come such obstacles.

Flex­i­ble helper with a sense of sustainability

View­ings with SAM are a plea­sure — and more. Because more clear­ly than photos, videos or 360° panora­mas, the mobile estate agent’s assis­tant conveys an imme­di­ate impres­sion of the rooms, floor plan and even the neigh­bour­hood outside the windows. This enhanced percep­tion strength­ens confi­dence in the prop­er­ty viewed. With the help of SAM, prospec­tive buyers can see for them­selves factors such as light inci­dence, spatial effect, move­ment possi­bil­i­ties, etc.

The robot can be controlled by both the estate agent and a prospec­tive buyer. Prop­er­ty view­ings are also possi­ble in the evenings or at week­ends, as the SAM assis­tant is not tied to stan­dard work­ing hours. Up to four guests can take part in the tours — from the comfort of their own homes, offices or even holi­day desti­na­tions. This also makes SAM an inno­v­a­tive contri­bu­tion to sustain­able prop­er­ty market­ing: its use on site saves estate agents and prospec­tive buyers a lot of trav­el­ling and there­fore time and ener­gy consumption.

Paving the way for a new era

It will certain­ly be some time before we see “real” autonomous robots as helpers on construc­tion sites or in prop­er­ty manage­ment. But SAM is a start — and a very worth­while one. After all, its use not only means prac­ti­cal bene­fits for estate agents and prospec­tive buyers. It is also an inno­va­tion with enter­tain­ment value: gami­fi­ca­tion — i.e. the inclu­sion of play­ful elements — can be a deci­sive advan­tage today, espe­cial­ly for younger customers.

You can watch the robot in action in a TV report featured on Bavar­i­an tele­vi­sion ( Bayerischen Fernsehens)

(Image source: AI-adapt­ed — istockphoto)