R.BOT shows off Synergy Swan, a phone- or tablet-powered telepresence robot

While wandering around the show floor at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, we had to stop and take a closer peek at these cute-looking robots. Conveniently dubbed the Synergy Swan, this 14kg machine from Russian-based R.BOT (or Quanzhou Future Robot Technology in China) uses an Android device as its face and camera, as well as sending movement commands for its neck (with four degrees of freedom) and wheels (maximum speed about 1.8km/h) via Bluetooth. The Android phone or tablet will obviously be equipped with the appropriate apps for either telepresence or automated interaction with people — the latter can simply be the tablet automatically starting to “talk” or play a video clip when a person smiles at it. Interested? You can nab a Synergy Swan for a surprisingly affordable $450, and there’s also a smaller but stationary Synergy Mime for just $250. Jump right past the break to see R.BOT US CEO Dmitriy Subbotin show off his robots.