Bots go gambling
The crazy part about Northern Lights Casino is that it didn’t even start as the main event of the day.
Earlier that morning, Quinn and I, Keenon’s U.S. tech specialist, had already knocked out a demo at Sola Salon. Most people would probably call that a full day right there. Not us. As soon as we wrapped that one up, we got back in the car and drove another 3 to 3.5 hours north to Walker, Minnesota for what ended up being one of the wildest demos and learning experiences we’ve had so far.
And right away, we knew this one was different.
It’s one thing when a place wants to see one robot. It’s another thing when a casino wants to see three of them.
They wanted to demo the CleanBoss C40, the RouteRunner T10, and the RoomRunner W3. That alone made it a huge opportunity for us, but what really told us this was going to be a big one was how serious they were from the start. They pretty much wanted us to map the entire place.
So that’s what we did.
We mapped a huge portion of the property — the casino floor, front entrances, hotel, buffet area, and a couple other large open areas near the lobby. Just with the T10, we first mapped around 33,000 square feet, weaving in and out of the casino and other major areas. And let me tell you, that alone turned some heads.
You could tell pretty quickly that a lot of people there hadn’t really seen robots like this before, or maybe robots in general in a real working environment. We got all kinds of reactions — a lot of looks, a lot of questions, some love, and yeah… some hate too. Which honestly kind of comes with the territory when you’re rolling robots through a casino and making them dance, sing, and cruise around like they own the place.
One of the biggest things that clicked right away was the promotional value of the T10. It wasn’t just a robot moving through the building — it was a straight-up attention grabber. People noticed it immediately. The screen, the movement, the roaming, the greetings, the dancing — it has a way of pulling people in without even trying that hard. In a place like a casino, that’s a huge deal. It can help with service, sure, but it can also create a fun experience and become a moving promotional piece at the same time. They saw that pretty quickly.
One of the coolest parts of the whole trip was meeting with Dean, the chef there, who really liked the idea of the RouteRunner T10. Once we got the buffet area mapped out, we started thinking through how it could actually work in a real operation. One idea we came up with was placing the T10 in between 3 to 4 tables so the wait staff could bus quickly and easily, then hit the call button to send it back toward the dishwasher area. That’s the kind of stuff that makes these demos fun — when it stops being “look at this cool robot” and starts becoming “okay, this could actually make our job easier.”
From there, we also made some roaming paths through the casino so the T10 could move around, greet people, dance, sing, and basically become part attraction and part service tool. We set things up at both front entrances too, so it could help make an impression the second people walked in. Safe to say this thing was not exactly trying to keep a low profile.
We also got to meet their tech guy, Nick, and you could tell right away he was a smart dude. The kind of guy who clearly understands systems and would be a big piece of making something like this work well. He was also slammed the whole time, so we didn’t get to talk with him as much as we wanted, which was a little frustrating because he was going to be one of the main guys working with the robots. But even in the short time we had with him, you could tell he got it.
Once we finished that mapping work, we were able to push the map over to the CleanBoss C40.
And that’s where one of the bigger learning moments came in.
At a casino, there are a ton of no-go zones. Once we went through and marked all of those for the C40 and saved the map, it ended up changing the T10 map in a way we weren’t expecting. Long story short, it turned into one of those late-night problem-solving sessions where you’re tired, your brain is fried, and you’re staring at a map wondering who touched what and why everything suddenly looks different.
But we figured it out.
It made for a very late night… or maybe early morning is the better way to say it. I think we finally got to bed around 4:00 AM at the hotel casino, and then the next morning we had to get right back after it because we had a big demo lined up for the higher-ups — and we still had more work to do before that even started. Not exactly the kind of beauty sleep that has you waking up fresh and ready to dominate, but we made it work. The robots were still sharp. Quinn and I? Debatable.
That’s what made this trip such a wild one.
Big opportunity. Big property. Three robots. Long drive. Late night. Early morning. A lot of learning packed into a very short amount of time.
And after all of that, the demo went great.
The higher-ups loved it, we learned a lot, and it felt like one of those moments where everything starts getting more real. These weren’t just random show-and-tell demos anymore. This was a legit operation looking at multiple robots and real ways they could use them throughout the property.
By the time Quinn and I finally felt okay to hit the road and head back home, we were absolutely cooked. Quinn threw on his eye mask, put in his earbuds, and basically slept the whole ride back to Minneapolis while I drove him down to his hotel by the airport. After that, I raced home to my puppy and I’m pretty sure I fell asleep in about three seconds.
Long trip. Long day. Big opportunity. A lot learned.
To be continued…
