FURHAT ROBOTICS AB

Their core work

Furhat Robotics develops social robot platforms with expressive, human-like faces designed for natural conversational interaction. Their technology enables robots to communicate through speech, facial expressions, and gaze in settings like education, healthcare, and customer service. The company provides both the hardware platform and the AI-driven dialogue systems that power these interactions, making them a key technology supplier for research teams studying human-robot communication. Their work sits at the intersection of robotics engineering and applied behavioral science, with a strong focus on how children and language learners interact with social robots.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2016–2018), Furhat focused on proving that social robots could meaningfully interact with children in educational settings — projects like BabyRobot and ANIMATAS explored child-robot communication, virtual characters, and gamified learning. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted toward deeper cognitive and linguistic questions: how conversational AI aligns with human brain processes (COBRA), how digital tools support early language acquisition (e-LADDA), and how to scale their platform commercially (Furhat SME-2). The trajectory shows a company moving from demonstrating social robotics capabilities toward understanding and engineering natural human-like conversation at a fundamental level.

Furhat is moving from educational robotics toward becoming a general-purpose conversational AI platform company, with deepening expertise in the cognitive science of dialogue.

How they like to work

Furhat operates mostly as a specialist partner or technology provider within larger research consortia — 3 of their 6 projects are as participant and 1 as third party. Their two coordinator roles were their own SME Instrument projects (feasibility study and scale-up), which is typical for startups using EU funding to grow their own product. With 39 unique partners across 17 countries, they connect widely rather than repeatedly with the same groups, suggesting they are valued as a platform provider that different research teams want to integrate.

Furhat has collaborated with 39 distinct partners across 17 countries, giving them a broad European research network spanning Scandinavia, Western Europe, and beyond. Their connections are predominantly with universities and research institutes working on human-computer interaction, cognitive science, and educational technology.

What sets them apart

Furhat is one of very few European companies that manufactures and sells a physical social robot platform specifically designed for face-to-face conversational interaction. Unlike most robotics SMEs that focus on industrial automation or logistics, Furhat occupies a niche where hardware engineering meets behavioral science and AI-driven dialogue. Their deep involvement in MSCA training networks (3 projects) means they are embedded in the academic talent pipeline, giving consortium partners access to both a commercial platform and trained researchers.

Highlights from their portfolio

• COBRA
  A research-intensive project (2020–2024) connecting conversational AI with brain science and second language learning, representing their deepest dive into cognitive underpinnings of dialogue.
• BabyRobot
  Their earliest H2020 project established their reputation in child-robot interaction, a research area that became foundational to their subsequent work.
• Furhat
  Their EUR 2.26M SME-2 scale-up grant — the largest single funding they received — signals EU confidence in their commercial viability as a social robotics platform company.