This summer, W5 are pleased to introduce RoboThespian, the newest member of their team. RoboThespian is a life sized, humanoid, interactive robot who can move, speak, educate, interact and entertain.

Made by British company Engineered Arts Ltd, RoboThespian is the world’s first commercial robot that behaves like a person. Now in its third generation, with more than ten years of continuous development, RoboThespian has been used in academic research institutions around the world and visitor attractions such as NASA Space Centre in Florida.

Adrian Lutton, Head of Exhibitions, Design, and Marketing at W5 explains;

“RoboThespian is primarily a robot actor and performer. He is fully interactive, user friendly, and capable of communicating and entertaining in a way that few people will have experienced before. This humanoid robot can be controlled by the visitor, via a touchscreen panel, and can sing, greet, inform, act and even do impressions. Visitors can choose from a wide range of pre-programmed performance sequences or can even control RoboThespian’s movement and voice to create performance pieces of their own!

In 2014, we introduced Climbit, the first multi-story climbing structure of its kind in the UK and Ireland and in May 2015 we introduced RoboThespian, the first robot of it’s kind in Ireland. W5 are continuing to add to and enhance the visitor experience by bringing new innovative interactives to fire the spirit of discovery in everyone.”

Will Jackson, Founder and Director of Cornish-based Engineered Arts Ltd is the world’s only maker of commercially available life sized humanoid robots. They are produced in a factory in Penryn, Cornwall. Jackson states;

“I made my first robot when I was 12 years old, it was a thing with 2 wheels and it scuttled off underneath the bed with a felt tip pen and coloured the carpet purple. When I founded Engineered Arts in 2004, I had the slightly more ambitious idea to create an interactive humanoid robot that could communicate with and entertain science museum visitors all day long. Now we make RoboThespian humanoid robots, each with individual personalities that are loved by people all over the world.

We are delighted that the first RoboThespian to travel to the island of Ireland is joining the team at W5 and look forward to following his adventures.”

To celebrate the arrival of RoboThespian, W5 have jam packed the summer with robotic events programmed to amaze and entertain! For further information visit www.w5online.co.uk.