Oleg Kivokurtsev

Director of Development and one of the founders of the Promobot company. It is not only the largest manufacturer of service robots on the territory of Russia, Northern, and Eastern Europe but also one of the brands through which Perm is known all over the world. Born in 1991, in Perm. Graduated from PNRPU, Car and Road Bulding Faculty.

Quotes

• I never set myself the task of getting cash. I was worried that everything — from the eraser and pens to complex equipment — was made abroad. I wanted to create here something high-tech that will be sold all over the world.
• Perm region is a favorable place for the creation of robotic devices.
• The robot vacuum cleaner is one of the greatest inventions of robotics. Key discoveries happen in those areas where is the maximum pain of a person from the unwillingness to perform an action.

My story

Before graduation, we with Igor Eremeev and Maxim Utev were engaged in projects in the field of robotics. At one of the conferences we got acquainted with the «business angel» Alexei Yuzhakov, and he proposed to direct our efforts to create service robots.

The first prototype of the robot took four months; we worked in a garage on the outskirts of Perm. Around — car-care centers, furniture production — and all neighbors actively helped in the work. For example, we did not have a welder, but a simple request consistently decided it: «Ivanych, gimme weld».

Over the next three months, we showed a prototype to two dozen companies, and with half of them signed supply contracts. We received the first 100 thousand dollars — then it was 3 million rubles. The money was sent to create the serial production. When we put the first robot in the store — it was a floral one, sales there increased by 3.5 times. He drove and said: «Who buys roses, he smells all day long».

To characterize Promobot at the present stage is best in figures: we signed a contract for the supply of 2,837 robots in the US worth 56.7 million dollars. Now we are negotiating the signing of a investment agreement for the amount of about 500 million rubles to expand production capacity.

In the development of service robots in Russia, no one has invested so much. We do not plan to transfer the production and development center anywhere else — we'll send investments to the Perm site.

Often there are such calls: «Hello! We are going to go to Perm. Can we come to your factory? „ A group of British students arrived, they traveled together with their teacher across Russia. They chose between visiting Yekaterinburg and Perm, and eventually went here to get acquainted with the robot. But the fact that we let them into production is an exception, in general, we do not conduct excursions. You can look at the robot, for example, in the historic park „Russia — My History“ at the Rechnoi vokzal.

Robotics combines mechanics, electronics, and programming. We cooperate with a large number of organizations in these areas, and a significant part of our partners are local companies. The Perm region is an industrial region, and here almost all the products that we need to create robots are produced. Robotics can be a driving force for the related industries. For example, in the production of metal components, we must follow a particular class of accuracy, and by raising the requirements for this indicator, we motivate suppliers to develop.

The handshake between Vladimir Putin and our robot during the president's visit to Perm in 2017 had a positive impact on the prestige and welfare of Promobot. We have gained additional confidence, including in the international market.

Robots will massively come first of all to those areas where the work is dirty, dangerous or dull. The latter applies, in particular, to the professions of the service sector — sellers, consultants, administrators, hostesses, butlers. It is they who can be replaced by the „variety“ of robots to which Promobot belongs. Our goal is to become the largest supplier of service robots for work in places of increased congestion. Now the company is developing in the field of face recognition, speech recognition, mechatronics.

In the future, robotic complexes will become full-fledged economic units. Huge fields will be worked under the control of only one person; drone equipment will harvest and deliver it to special warehouses, where automatic systems will grind grain into flour and so on along the chain until finished bread is delivered to stores. And so else everywhere: from the mining and oil industry to the banking sector.

Perm has every chance to become one of the largest digitalization centers in Russia. There are potent universities with the energetic staff, developed industry and many inspirational success stories.