MAIA, Advanced Model of Artificial Intelligence

It was 1988 when MAIA (Advanced Model of Artificial Intelligence) came to life. A real robot, with the ambition of being a concierge for the FBK (at the time ITC-IRST) guests. In its initial design, it vaguely reminds us of Star Wars’s R2-D2, only a bit more rough, as research prototypes typically are. It lacks those human or human-like features that lived in the imaginary of the robotics of the time, but it certainly had skills that were not quite common in those years. All this happens in Trentino, which has always been renowned for its tourist attractions and much less famous for its research activities, albeit important.