What if the future of robotics isn’t human at all, but soft, cute, friendly and built to have a calming effect? Here are some expert African insights.
Meet Moflin, Casio’s AI-powered fluffy robotic companion. It’s adorable, huggable and develops its own personality and emotions based on how you interact with it, just like a real pet. Unlike traditional robotic toys, Moflin is designed to act like a living creature. It wiggles, squeaks and senses when you’re nearby. It has AI-induced independent emotions that evolve through daily interaction–you’ll pet Moflin, talk to it, hug it and in doing so, you’ll begin to form a bond. Over time, Moflin will recognize your voice and become attached. The more time you spend with Moflin, the more unique its character will become. In fact, there are over four million possible personality traits this little AI robot pet can acquire. It’s essentially a portable, emotional support robot, a high-end fluffy Tamagotchi (handheld digital pets) that runs for around five hours until you pop it back into its bed to recharge. Moflin costs $429 (~R7,300) and over 10,000 were sold in Japan before Casio released the little robot worldwide.
What’s interesting is how, in a world focused on humanoids, there is high demand for a companion robot like Moflin. “When you build robots that look like cute animals, there’s no expectation that they can do all the things that humans can do–because they don’t look human,” says Dr Steven James, Deputy Director of the RAIL Lab research group at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
“This is one of the biggest failures of robotics companies today. If you start building humanoid robots, people are going to think that because it looks like me, it can do all of the things I do. And when it fails at that, it’s a disaster.”
1X Technologies, founded in Norway, has just started to sell NEO, the world’s first, consumer-ready humanoid robot. For $20,000, NEO will help around the house. He can hear you, see you, do specific tasks like opening the fridge and telling you what would be good to make for supper. He can’t cook, but he can fold laundry. He’s basically a more startling version of Rosie, the Jetson family’s housekeeper. But NEO cannot be a part of the workforce, just yet. With a runtime of only four hours, he isn’t ready for a full-day’s work. NEO is expensive and understandably so. He’s powered by a high-performance Nvidia Jetson Thor processor and 1X’s RedWood AI, which combines language and vision learning. His movement depends on custom tendon-driven actuators, pressure sensors and stereo cameras that help him interpret space and adjust his grip. All of this makes NEO one of the most advanced, and costly, home robots, yet still a prototype. He’s functional, but not yet reliable.