Tag Archives: home robot

Minion-like robots servers may become our cute new robot overlord

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I grew up on The Jetsons and I loved seeing all of the “futuristic” things that they showed, some of which are actually a reality now. One of the things that I thought would be really cool is to have robots serving you at your house. That is until I watched Battlestar Galactica and that was replaced with the fear of robots eventually becoming our overlords. Still, having little, harmless robots running around may still have a certain appeal.

Designers: Dawn BYSJ, Juwon Lee

If you like the idea of having robots around your house and you’re a fan of the Minions, then this concept for a Minion Serving Robot would be of interest to you. It’s not an actual Minion like from the movies but the design aims to give off a Minion-y vibe, from the vibrant yellow and blue colors and to the shape that brings to mind those little yellow creatures running around.

The serving robot has a C-shape body and has three wheels to get it moving around your space. It’s designed to be like a small scooter except that it will move things around rather than people. There are three layers of trays where you can put all your food and drinks that you want it to “serve” to you at your dining table. There’s a knob at the back that looks like the eye of the Minion although I don’t really know what its function is.

There are no other information about this concept but I’m assuming there’s some kind of app that will control how the serving robot moves around. We don’t know if there’s artificial intelligence involved as well but that would be cool. But when it starts becoming sentient, I’m turning it off. I’d rather serve my own food than have a Minion overlord.

The post Minion-like robots servers may become our cute new robot overlord first appeared on Yanko Design.

This cabinet on wheels can fetch you things like a loyal canine

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There’s finally a robot for the home that’s not just for sucking up dirt on the floor.

Robots are coming, whether we like it or not. They may not be the kind that’s negatively portrayed in movies, at least not yet, but few of them can be considered “friendly,” even in appearance. Today’s robots also seem to stand on two opposite ends of a spectrum, with sophisticated but nightmarish Spots on one end and simplistic but single-purpose Roombas on the other. Few other robots are designed for home use, but a company backed by Roomba maker iRobot and the Amazon Alexa Fund is aiming to change that in the simplest but most useful way possible.

Designer: Labrador Systems

At first glance, this robot looks nothing like the typical robots you see both in homes (on the floor) and in factories. When it isn’t active, it looks more like a tall shelf with an open box compartment. In fact, the faux wooden sides of that compartment, available in Light Maple and Warm Teak colors, seem to be designed to blend with your furniture and masquerade as a simple shelf.

It’s anything but simple, of course, and this shelf on wheels can move around your house on its own at your beck and call. You can tell it to bring you your medicine or the plates for setting the table, or you can tell it to accompany you to the laundry room while it carries the washing load for you. Appropriately, this robot is named the Labrador Retriever.

In some cases, this robot is powered by some of the same technologies that robot vacuum cleaners use to navigate your house. After learning the lay of the land, it uses 3D vision to drive itself to or away from you, avoiding obstacles along its path. It can be controlled manually, through an app, or by voice, specifically through Amazon Alexa. It also has some special tricks of its own, like sliding a specially-designed Labrador-branded tray of food or medicine onto its shelf without any human intervention.

Unlike robot vacuum cleaners, the Labrador Retriever and its smaller sibling, the Labrador Caddie, aren’t just designed to make life easier. In fact, they were primarily envisioned to empower those with physical difficulties or handicaps to be productive and live normal lives. Of course, that means that these robots need to have designs that won’t haunt your dreams, and thankfully, the Labrador Retriever is as inconspicuous as a modern minimalist cabinet, contrary to what its name might suggest.

The post This cabinet on wheels can fetch you things like a loyal canine first appeared on Yanko Design.

Amazon just launched a (slightly) creepy Home Robot that can follow you around your house and responds to voice commands

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This absolutely wouldn’t fly if it was a Facebook product.

Earlier today at Amazon’s hardware event, the company launched a whole slew of products including upgraded Echo devices, Ring doorbells, a fitness tracker, and even a thermostat… although one product immediately stood out – Amazon’s $1000 home robot named Astro.

Modeled as a WALL-E-ish robot with dog-like proportions, the Astro can follow you around the house, respond to your voice commands, allow you to video-chat with friends and family, and even monitor your house while you’re asleep or away, tying in with their Ring video doorbell’s alert services. The robot sports a large screen for a face (with ring-shaped emotive eyes), runs on wheels (so it can’t climb stairs for now), and even comes with two nifty little cup-holders built into its rear so it can carry your water, coffee, soda, or beer around, being an attentive little butler-dog-sentinel that’s designed to be cute and approachable… unless you’re an intruder, of course.

The Astro works quite like the way your Roomba does. Multiple cameras around its base let the Astro map out your home, while a camera module on its head sits on an expanding periscope mount, allowing the Astro to see you at eye level, look above counters/furniture, and just get a better vantage point for its security systems. It stands roughly two feet high, weighs about 20 pounds, and comes with a battery docking system where it automatically goes to recharge. The tiny little robot responds to voice commands just like your smart speaker would. It ties in a bunch of Amazon services – you can video-chat through it, remotely monitor your home, ask it to follow you around, to dance to music, and even to fetch you stuff from the other room (although someone will have to physically put items in the Astro’s cup holder). Given that it can’t navigate stairs, Amazon expects you to set up Astro in the main living area, where it’ll be needed most – and where it can surveil and safeguard your entire house against intruders. You can set up specific “viewpoints” around your house and label rooms so Astro understands commands that tell it to go to specific locations. On-board cameras even come with facial recognition, allowing the Astro to differentiate between residents, visitors, and trespassers.

It’s long been rumored that Amazon was working on a home robot that would extend the capabilities of Alexa and Amazon’s other services. Tech journalists were quick to warn that it would just give Amazon yet another opportunity to monitor your home, going beyond just audio and video recordings. The Astro can move around your house, practically mapping your interiors to create a precise 3D model of your home – data that could be extremely valuable to the company in the future. People can be pretty quick to surrender their privacy and freedoms in the face of convenience, which is what makes the Astro such an interesting product to debate about. Sure, it’s modeled like a dog, sure it serves you with a whole slew of useful services and features… but who’s the real owner here? For $1000 you probably own the robot, but you surely don’t own any of the data the robot collects. In this seemingly uncomplicated equation, you’re not really the master… Amazon is.

The Astro is currently available as an invite-based limited release as the company tests the waters. Amazon claims Astro will be extremely helpful to people who rely on Amazon’s ecosystem of products and services, as well as the elderly and disabled. I, personally, have my doubts given Amazon’s relatively cavalier attitude towards complete user privacy and its history of sharing data with third parties, the police, and even government agencies.

Want something that looks cute, responds to voice commands, and can monitor your house at all times? Adopt a dog instead. At least it won’t upload your data to Amazon’s servers.

Designer: Amazon

Toyota is using VR to train robots as in-home helpers

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Home robots could make all of our lives easier, and perhaps most importantly, they could allow seniors to live more independently. But training robots to operate in homes is difficult because each home is unique and filled with so many objects in dif...

These are all of the Alexa devices Amazon unveiled today

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Today, Amazon held its second-annual hardware deluge. Like last year, the company had a lot to unveil. It revealed a slew of Echo devices, Alexa-powered wearables, Ring's first indoor security cam and a smart oven. The company also shared Alexa updat...