Smartphones can be packed with a bevy of apps that can improve your quality of life. As useful as those apps are, how neat would it be bring them to life? One company claims its robot can do just that.
Isreal-based Robit has placed its eponymous bot on Indieogo in an effort to earn the funds it needs to produce what it calls “the world’s most affordable home robot.”
The 3-pound, 13-inch tall helper is almost adorable enough to hug with its LED eyes and small, everlasting grin. But Robit is much more than a source of comfort. Controlled by apps from the Robit store, the miniature comrade autonomously moves about your home, providing aid when you need.
Do you have kids at home? Robit can provide them with an additional hide-and-seek partner, or even an opponent in a foam weapon battle using its toy missile launcher. Robit can also teach your kids, or even yourself, how to code, or how to grasp that foreign language you’ve always wanted to learn.
If you have a young, mischievous pet Robit can provide you with a sort of couch bouncer, preventing your pet from hopping on furniture.
Perhaps one of the more interesting roles of the small bot is diet coach. For example, if you’re considering scarfing down a fifth piece of pizza—I might have been guilty of this Super Bowl Sunday—simply place the slice in front of Robit and have it tell you how many calories it has.
Robit is powered by a Raspberry Pi computer which includes a four quad CPU, 16 GB of SSD memory, and 1 GB of Ram. Robit’s operating system is Linux and it has a Python and Node.js application program interface
An HD video camera mounted on Robit’s head allows it to stream live video. A number of ultrasonic sensors prevent Robit from running into anything while it rolls around on its three wheels, the front two of which are powered by two DC motors, while the posterior wheel is free. The robot features a speaker and microphone, both of which are linked to a sound card. Robit is both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatible. Chargin is no issue as robit will autonomously roll to its docking stage just before its five to eight hour battery life runs out.
Robit’s Indiegogo campaign has earned $18,771 of its flexible $40,000 goal, with 21 days remaining in the campaign. The majority of the funding from Indiegogo would be used to create more apps for Robit. A few other campaign stretch goals have been planned, the first of which, at $300,000, would help to develop an augmented reality game allowing Robits to fight each other using different weapons. The Robit team hopes to begin delivering Robit in January 2017 and will sell for $349.
