{"id":"sulube-steve","manufacturer":"Sulu.be","model":"Steve","country":"BE","description":"Steve is a one-off character robot, roughly two metres tall, built by Belgian designer Jan De Coster (studio Sulu.be / Slightly Overdone) for Brightfish, Belgium's cinema advertising company. It was made as an event host and the face of cinema campaigns, not as a commercial product or a retail service robot.","catalog_status":"in-development","specifications":{"height_cm":null,"weight_kg":null,"payload_kg":null,"dof":null,"speed_ms":null,"battery_h":null},"capabilities":["sort"],"source":{"url":"https://www.sulu.be","verified_at":null,"verified_fields":[],"review_status":"requires_current_source_check"},"evidence":{"manufacturer_review":null,"mera_field_test":{"status":"not_published","report_url":null,"measured_at":null},"verification_note":"A manufacturer documentation check does not verify field performance, inventory or MERA compatibility."},"knowledge":{"summary":"Steve is a one-off character robot, roughly two metres tall, built by Belgian designer Jan De Coster (studio Sulu.be / Slightly Overdone) for Brightfish, Belgium's cinema advertising company. It was made as an event host and the face of cinema campaigns, not as a commercial product or a retail service robot.","sections":[{"h":"History","p":["According to the designer's own post, the idea for Steve came in spring 2013, more than a year and a half before the robot was finished. Brightfish had asked for a robot of its own, and Steve was to front several campaigns in Belgian cinemas in 2015. He is named after Steve McQueen.","De Coster came from web design and advertising, including BBDO. He built his first robot, \"Yummy\", in four weeks for an agency in 2012. Steve became his largest robot."]},{"h":"Design and purpose","p":["Steve was conceived as an event host that feels at home on stage and among people, for example interviewing guests. The designer describes him as a little bigger than an average person and able to rise well above the crowd; an Inky Goodness interview calls him a \"2-meter-tall friendly giant\". No detailed specifications (weight, degrees of freedom, drive) have been published."]},{"h":"Creator","p":["Sulu.be was the former site of Jan De Coster's Belgian studio and now redirects to jan.decoster.studio. De Coster presents himself as a humanoid designer with 15 years of robot work, focused on human-robot interaction and embodied AI, and lists Audi Brussels, Vitra, the City of Ghent and Kinepolis among clients. Steve was never offered for sale."]}],"timeline":[["2012","Jan De Coster builds his first robot, Yummy"],["2013","First sketches of Steve"],["2014-06","Finished robot presented for Brightfish"],["2015","Planned Steve campaigns in Belgian cinemas"]],"faq":[["Can you buy the Steve robot?","No. It is a one-off robot built for Brightfish."],["Who built Steve?","Belgian designer Jan De Coster, who previously worked under the Sulu.be and Slightly Overdone names."],["How tall is Steve?","About 2 m according to an interview with the designer; exact specs were not published."],["What was Steve used for?","Hosting events and advertising campaigns in Belgian cinemas."]],"sources":[{"title":"The journey of Steve","publisher":"Jan De Coster Studio","url":"https://jan.decoster.studio/?p=149","date":"2014-06-26"},{"title":"Jan De Coster Studio","publisher":"Jan De Coster Studio","url":"https://jan.decoster.studio/","date":"2026-10"},{"title":"Pictoplasma: Jan De Coster on sci-fi and robots","publisher":"Inky Goodness","url":"https://inkygoodness.com/features/pictoplasma-jan-de-coster-sci-fi-robots/","date":"2016-05-17"}],"updated":"2026-10-10"},"mera":{"rental_with_operator":false,"sale_in_offer":false,"availability":"confirmation_required","shop_url":null},"url":"https://merarobotics.com/blog/humanoids/sulube-steve","inquiry_url":"https://merarobotics.com/en/start?service=purchase&robot=sulube-steve"}