Like the business travel sector didn’t have enough to worry about, there’s now one more thing - The QB telepresence robot from the Mountain View, CA based Anybots Inc., which further narrows the gap between face-to-face meetings and  videoconferencing.

Anybots QB robot

QB physically represents you anywhere you need to be – it will talk, listen, observe, react and move around on wheels along with the others, same as if you were in the room. Anybots says QB is a ‘mobile proxy robot’ made to connect people and locations.

QB is equipped with a speaker, microphone, camera, and video screen connected to the internet over Wi-Fi, and you control it from a web browser with no need for any special equipment or software.

The robot has a built in guidance system to avoid bumping into objects and people, and since your view of the remote room is the same as what the robot is seeing, all you have to do is provide direction using the four arrow keys on your keyboard. The long telescopic neck can be adjusted to the preferred height.

You could move around on a convention floor and mingle without actually being there. That’s a valuable asset, if you don’t have the time to travel to the event. Maybe convention organizers will start offering robot rebates.

You can even use multiple QB’s to represent yourself in different places at the same time. So you could ideally work from home or go fishing, be available in your office cubicle, join in on a board meeting and attend a remote conference in another destination – all at the same time.

Bob Christopher, COO, Anybots, made it pretty clear how they’re going to sell QB – “ Even as the workforce goes global, most business people still have to travel for meetings. QB is our effort to fix that – remote presence is the last missing piece.”

If QB becomes a hit, business travel will lose ground faster to videoconferencing, which is already set to grow into an $8.6 billion industry by 2013. Even so, there’s a natural reluctance to conduct important business remotely without a handshake and face-to-face interaction. 

For example, being remote leaves you out of the loop during lunch, when there are discussions in hallways before and after meetings, and so on. But the physical presence, personality and mobility of QB might just be enough to overcome these limitations. Future versions of the robot might even be able to seal the deal with a real handshake.

The Anybots QB robot weighs 35 lbs and has a rolling speed of 3.5 mph. The robot will be available in Fall 2010.

More info: www.anybots.com/