Category
Home robots, wearables, toys, and personal robotics.
The consumer category is the one place robots have genuinely reached mass adoption, and it did so by being unglamorous. Robot vacuums succeeded because the task is repetitive, the floor is roughly flat, failure is cheap, and the price landed within impulse range. Robotic mowers and pool cleaners followed the same template.
Everything more ambitious has struggled. General-purpose home assistants and social robots have repeatedly failed to justify their price, because the home is cluttered, variable, and unforgiving, and because a robot that mostly works is more irritating than no robot at all.
Price compression is now the dominant dynamic. Capable navigation and mapping have become commodity features, competition has driven margins down hard, and differentiation increasingly comes from software, docking and self-emptying convenience, and brand.
In 2018, Amazon brought me in as the lead UX Sound Designer for Astro, its first consumer home robot. Astro used cameras and other sensors to map and navigate your home and workplace, and could proactively patrol, check up on loved ones, and transport small items using its…
Claire chatted to Gavin Kenneally from Ghost Robotics about robot dogs for defence, security, and public safety. Gavin Kenneally is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ghost Robotics, a company that has gained a reputation for pushing the boundaries of legged robotics technology. In his…
