The first question someone asks when they walk into a store or a hotel lobby is usually the simplest one: "Which floor is this on", "Has my order arrived", "Where do I register". Those questions tie up the reception desk, create a queue, and at peak hours go unanswered. The Robot access channel moves your agent onto a physical device and takes over that first contact — the visitor speaks, with no screen to touch and no app to install.
What the robot discusses with someone walking in
The robot is not a separate AI. It is the spoken form of the agent you already built in the panel, using the same knowledge base, the same catalogue and the same connected systems.
- Greets the visitor and takes their question by voice
- Answers product, service, pricing and opening-hours questions from your knowledge base
- Checks stock, orders and shipment status through your connected systems
- Replies out loud, so the visitor never has to read or type
- Does not invent what it does not know; it logs the request instead
Hardware requirements and the voice loop
The Robot channel does not require you to buy a purpose-built machine; it runs on common single-board computers.
- The device. A Raspberry Pi 4 or newer, running Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64-bit with SSH enabled.
- Audio hardware. A USB microphone and speaker. Audio devices are configured automatically during setup.
- The voice loop. The device holds a persistent connection to the server. As someone speaks, audio streams across in segments, the end of speech is detected from the pause, the speech is transcribed, the agent produces an answer, and that answer is turned back into audio and streamed to the device. Nobody presses a button.
- Security. The device joins with a time-limited signed connection key rather than an API key, and only robot accounts marked active in the panel are accepted.
Setting up the robot and linking it to the panel
There are three things to do, in order:
- Create a robot account in the panel. Pick the agent, name the device, and optionally record its manufacturer, model and serial number.
- Run the setup command on the device. The single-line command shown in the panel downloads the setup script, which installs the required packages, writes the device configuration and starts the robot software as a system service. The service comes back up on its own every time the device boots.
- Confirm the connection. Once the device connects, the panel shows its status, last-seen time and health information. To silence a device temporarily you set it to inactive in the panel, and the connection drops immediately.
This setup is designed for single-point scenarios: a store entrance, a clinic reception, a restaurant greeting station, a hotel lobby or an office door. For multiple points, each device is defined as its own robot account and all of them are monitored from the same panel.
Digital workers that work in physical spaces
You decide which digital worker stands behind the robot. The two set up most often in physical spaces:
- Customer Support Agent — resolves the questions it meets on site from your knowledge base and hands the rest to a staff member.
- E-Commerce Sales Agent — answers product, stock and order questions in store from your real data.
Other access channels
Robot is one of six access channels. The other two that support spoken conversation:
- Web Widget — the same voice experience on your website.
- Standalone Web Page — the version shared through a single link, with no device required.
You can hire a digital worker to greet people at your door today.