LETTER FROM MOSCOW
In Saint Petersburg, in this mid-June, there was only one for her: Douniacha, her pink polka-dot dress and her slightly jerky voice, Douniacha and her “legendary aroma coffee”… In the absence of distinguished guests, Russia’s international isolation obliges, it was she, Douniacha, who was the main star of the 25e St. Petersburg Economic Forum, the Russian Davos.
The Russian televisions, in love, devoted to him many reports : Douniacha, the robot that serves coffee and ice cream to visitors to the forum, placed at the entrance to the event, like a snub to those who announce Russia’s technological decline. Because the stakes are high: because of the international sanctions adopted in response to the conflict in Ukraine, Russia has suffered a brutal and unprecedented cut in the circuits of globalization. Deprived of many foreign components, its industry is threatened, and in particular high-tech industry. That of robots, for example.
Russia is, in this area, in an already paradoxical situation. Its economy is very weakly robotised – six robots per 10,000 employees, compared to an average of 114 in the European Union. This state of affairs is mainly explained by the low cost of labour, but also by a political and legal environment that does not favor long-term investment.
Modeled after Miss Perm 2014
This does not prevent the country from having a few successful companies, including the undisputed champion, Yandex, which has developed smart delivery people and taxis. These companies have a long tradition of showcasing spectacular headliners beyond their production of unglamorous industrial robots.
This is precisely the role that has been assigned to Douniacha (“Duniyasha” in its English version), creation of the firm Promobot, based in Perm. In reality, the robot does not itself serve ice cream and coffee, leaving this thankless job to an articulated arm. Douniacha, able to distinguish between men and women, to make eye contact and to modify the features of his face, is content to make small talk, throwing out cutesy compliments and standard information in his jagged voice, or to dance – tasks that his Hong Kong ancestor Sofia already accomplished in 2016, while walking, which Douniacha does not know how to do.
Almost everything for looks, then. And there, the designers may have overdone it a bit. In addition to Douniacha’s outfit, Soviet to the core, visitors did not fail to notice the impressive chest of the robot. A visitor could not help, moreover, to seize the said chest, arousing a controversy more passionate than that aroused by the arrival of a Taliban delegation, an organization considered terrorist by Moscow.
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