Robotic ROGNAN opens up
Robotic furniture that can fit more into small living spaces? Ori and IKEA bring innovative technology to people's homes with ROGNAN, a new way of comfortable and intelligent small space dwelling.
Just push the ROGNAN interface touchpad and in no time, the robotic all-in-one furniture turns from being a bed to a sofa, to a walk-in-closet. Another touch and it's back to a bed or lounge sofa again. The intention is to make use of limited square meters at home in an even more practical way. Don’t need your bed during the day? Just hide it away and make space for the sofa instead. And do you really need access to your walk-in-closet while you're sleeping? “With help from robotic furniture systems, we want to transform rooms effortlessly, to create a living space that feels and acts as if it was much bigger. It can be turning your living room into your bedroom, or your bedroom into your office”, says Hasier Larrea, founder and CEO of the American robotic furniture startup, Ori.
With approximately 1.5 million people moving into the cities globally every week, the urban population is booming and comes with a need for urgent solutions to smart small space living. IKEA and Ori teamed up around a shared passion and desire to offer a broad group of people better homes that they genuinely like. “To work together with Ori and combine their robotics expertise with our expertise on home furnishing, that makes something truly unique. Robotics as a technology is, in one way, already something people are getting used to in our homes, such as robotic vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers. We want to use this technology to make people’s lives better and more comfortable, especially for small spaces. It is not nearly as futuristic as it may seem”, says Seana Strawn, product developer for new innovations at IKEA of Sweden.
The ROGNAN robotic system, which combines Ori's robotic techniques with the PLATSA storage solution from IKEA, is due to launch in Hong Kong and Japan in 2020.