One Of iRobot’s Co-Founders Is Now Making Weird Little Robot Companions
Colin Angle, the man who co-founded iRobot and helped bring robot vacuums to millions of homes, has just revealed his new company and upcoming product. The new company is called Familiar Machines & Magic and makes robots for the company, not for sweeping floors.
They are called Familiars and are described as “physically embodied AI systems to perceive, adapt and interact with people in a way that feels natural and consistent.” It’s like a pet, but with the loyalty and love replaced by algorithms.
“The next era of robotics is not just about dexterity or humanoid form, but also about machines that can make and maintain human connections,” he said at the event. The Wall Street Journal Conference on the future of everything. “My goal has always been to create systems that understand context, remember interactions, and behave consistently over time.”
The company says its first Familiar was “purpose-built for social interaction” with an overall design architecture “optimized for expressive full-body movements that communicate attention, awareness, and intention.” It’s also pretty cute.
The animal-looking robot is covered in a tactile coat and includes a series of cameras, as well as an array of microphones. This should allow it to interact with humans in a fairly normal way, which is facilitated by an integrated AI stack “powered by a small, custom multimodal model optimized for social reasoning.”
There is no actual product yet. The first Familiar is a working prototype and serves as a proof of concept. With that in mind, we don’t know when or if the company will put anything on store shelves or how much any of these fake pets will cost. By the way, animal shelters will allow you to bring home a cute creature for $50-125.
