The engineers at Anki set out to build a robot companion that could serve several purposes for users and be approachable. Branded as a ‘home robot’, Vector is a robot that the group hope feels like a living being in your home. Anki is running a Kickstarter campaign for the robot, they say, for two reasons: the first is that Kickstarter is a future-looking system and Anki hopes that robots like theirs will be more and more prevalent in the next decade. The other reason for a large scale Kickstarter launch is to get the technology into the hands of many users, especially users who might use the Software Development Kit to develop new ways to use the tech in a home setting.
Vector is built around the Qualcomm 200 processor platform and the front facing HD camera has an ultra-wide viewing angle of 120 degrees. Four microphones give multidirectional sound inputs with additional inputs coming from a front mounted infrared range finder, color in-plane switching display, six-axis inertial measurement unit and a WiFi connection to the user’s app.
If you discount robots used for vacuuming and torturing cats, my brain doesn’t automatically think that there are many options for home robots. Anki, however, already has three previous robotic platforms in use in 1.5 million homes and this Kickstarter campaign has captured the attention of at least 5,900 more users. There are 21 questions in the FAQ and more than 1,000 comments from users discussing everything from Vector’s technical capabilities to whether or not the bot gets freaked out when transported in a dark backpack. It’s curious that this campaign page and the company’s website are tight on technical details but very open to giving their development kit to users to create more end use options for the robot. The campaign ends on September 7, and early access robots are currently scheduled to ship in late 2018.