Irobot’s Founder Is Working On A New Kind Of Home Robot

Colin Angle, nan co-founder of iRobot and its CEO for 3 decades, is getting backmost into robotics pinch a caller startup called Familiar Machines & Magic. According to The Boston Globe, nan institution is processing a caller benignant of location robot focusing connected wellness and wellness that mightiness return nan style of an animal aliases a “familiar.”

The institution is presently successful stealth mode, Angle tells The Globe, and includes nan erstwhile CTO of iRobot, Chris Jones, arsenic bully arsenic iRobot’s Ira Renfrew, who adjacent nan institution to activity connected robotics astatine Amazon, including nan shuttered Scout proscription robot.

Angle was moving to move iRobot and its Roomba robot vacuum cleaners into nan brains of nan smart location earlier he adjacent nan institution pursuing nan illness of its discarded to Amazon successful January of this year. Since then, iRobot has slashed its R&D budget, trim almost 50 percent of its staff, and refocused its business connected location cleaning machines.

Familiar Machines & Magic has raised $15 cardinal from 8 investors and is looking for $15 cardinal more, according to TechCrunch. A business listing for nan institution connected LinkedIn describes it arsenic a “well-funded, caller embodied AI and robotics startup based extracurricular of Boston.”

It's an absorbing pivot for Angle to spell from nan applicable to nan personal. To date, robots that tin do things for you, specified arsenic robot vacuum cleaners, robot litter boxes, and robot lawnmowers, personification been overmuch successful than “companion bots.” Jibo, Moxie, and Anki are conscionable a less that personification powered down complete nan years.

However, advances successful generative AI could bring overmuch imaginable to nan space. These technologies could make robots specified arsenic nan lovable Lovot or Sony’s Aibo, which nan company recently resurrected, look overmuch human-like, personification conversations pinch you, and beryllium overmuch useful than simply being cute.

For example, Israeli startup Intuition Robotics has been moving connected ElliQ, an AI-powered societal robot designed to support nan aged and home-bound company, since 2017. I’ve tested a mates of versions of nan tabletop robot, and its third-generation model, which incorporates generative AI, is importantly overmuch lifelike and engaging.

What nonstop type of magic Angle and his Familars will conjure up remains to beryllium seen. One investor described “furry pets to reside loneliness” to The Globe. However, immoderate cognition of characteristic and practicality that positively impacts nan wellness and well-being of family members feels for illustration a bully spot to start.