Here’s one for experience seekers. It’s called the Smart City Experience Centre and it’s set to open at the already-popular centre:mk mall in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

Hailed as a first for the UK, the store’s focused on “breaking down the barriers to and accelerating the early adoption of digital technology”. It’s also a way to add interest to the mall and attract people who may not have shopping as their main aim but are likely to shop anyway.

Situated on Crown Walk, the Centre’s a joint initiative between the private and public sectors “serving as a shop window for consumers to experience and interact [with] robots and digital technologies”.

The 3,870 sq ft space contains a number of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to demonstrate how tech can “complement consumers’ every day lives rather than competing, with the objective being to reduce anxiety and improve adoption rates”. 

Building on the international robotics competitions and robot trails sponsored and hosted by centre:mk, the initiative seeks to position “Milton Keynes as the UK’s number one location in which new technologies can be tested and refined in a real-world environment”, with the mall operator noting: “This is currently one of the biggest barriers to the sustainable implementation of technology in key sectors such as healthcare and transport”.

Highlights in the Centre include Pepper, the famous robot designed to provide information and infotainment solutions to visitors “in a highly interactive humanoid form”, and a robotic dog conceived to serve as an alternative to real animals, such as for surveying particularly inaccessible areas of buildings or supporting the emergency services.  

There are also two autonomous vehicles (one in-store and the other on the mall) to complement an autonomous bus trial operated by StreetCav that begins testing in the city in December, with service trials set to begin later next year.
 
The Centre also features a number of projects that centre:mk and its partners are currently testing, all of which are capable of attracting global investment into Milton Keynes while building and maintaining a high skill base.

These include DronePort:MK’s drone technology, Smart City Data Platform, 5G Infrastructure, and a project led by the International Test and Evaluation Association investigating ways in which technology can be used to increase efficiency in hospitals to alleviate bed blocking.

Kevin Duffy, centre:mk’s Centre Director noted the Smart City Experience Centre “puts robotics and AI front and centre to our 22 million annual footfall.  It will reach more people in a week that other traditional locations would need three months to achieve.”