VaultBots unveils Luka, a Spanish-speaking humanoid for hotels and eldercare
Debuted at FIU's AI 305 forum, the Miami company's service robot converses in 80 languages — while humans stay in the loop via remote supervision.
VaultBots, a Miami-area technology company, has unveiled Luka, a humanoid robot built for service work, during the AI 305 artificial intelligence forum at Florida International University on Friday, according to coverage from Times Now World and a licensable EFE video segment distributed via Reuters Connect. NBC 6 South Florida also featured the robot at the conference over the weekend. Listed by the event as the “Luka Vaultbot A2,” the robot is aimed squarely at hotels, restaurants and senior care centers, where the company pitches it as backup for staff during high-traffic periods rather than a replacement.
According to the company, Luka can navigate indoor spaces, guide people, and hold conversations in 80 languages, including Spanish — a selling point in Miami. The 5-foot-7, 150-pound machine can walk, talk and serve drinks, FIU's own coverage notes, and the company claims fine motor dexterity it says is precise enough to thread a needle. The caveats matter: sales executive Gabriel Campos says the robot cannot yet operate entirely on its own and requires active human supervision, with remote tablet control, an emergency shutdown, and a protocol for handing interactions back to human staff.
Founder and CEO Gary Khachatryan addressed the jobs question head-on: “Luka is not going to replace any jobs. In fact, it's going to improve them all,” he told EFE, arguing the robot takes on repetitive, labor-intensive tasks so people can focus on direct customer interaction. On privacy, Khachatryan said camera footage is processed through the cloud rather than stored locally, and compared Luka's current conversational memory to existing voice assistants. Genuine memory and environmental awareness are a three-to-five-year goal, he estimated.
The business behind the debut is still tiny. VaultBots owns just two units, which are deployed mostly at private events, conferences, weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. The current price is about $100,000, though the company projects a drop to roughly $20,000 within three years as manufacturing matures. One notable supply-chain detail: today's units are built in China by AgiBot, the Shanghai humanoid maker; VaultBots says it intends to move production to Miami within the next year.