Story by Lauren J. Young, Inverse
By 2020, instead of Skyping with colleagues or distant friends and relatives, you may be chatting through a mobile, interactive robot. At least that’s what a new report suggests.
Telepresence robots are forecasted by the technology intelligence research firm Tractica to reach 31,600 units by 2020 — a growth rate of 49.7 percent from the current 4,200 count in 2015 — with cumulative shipments over the next five years expecting to total nearly 92,000. Telepresence robots go beyond Skype, too: These are personal and mobile teleoperatic robotic systems, meaning they are computers with wheels that you can listen and talk to.
