The applications for robots at home, work, and business make the idea of having robotic assistants compelling, but none thus far have been truly capable of combining a truly responsive interface with personality. The closest thus far may be Amazon’s Echo, but it doesn’t get across the illusion of emotion quite like most would like it to.
The team behind the Moorebot made sure that was its main priority, designing a small, charming robot with a single, blinking eye that learns quickly and can engage in light conversation with users. It was created to work in a variety of settings with customizable, upgradeable behavior. In a shop, it can serve as a greeter and customer service agent that can answer questions about inventory, a store layout, specials, and promotions. At work, it can send messages and remind users of important events, read notes and reports, keep track of the home from afar, record video emails, and even entertain in times of boredom. At home, it’s the consummate entertainer, singing, dancing and playing with kids. It can also be informational, providing news and weather updates along with recipes. In all three cases, it can operate a 2MP camera and a 1080p video camera for maximum clarity, perfect for its security monitoring functionality. And since it’s light, it can conceivably be moved from place to place if needed. Each Moorebot goes for $179 and is expected to ship November 2016 should its flexible Indiegogo campaign raise $30,000 by September 27th, 2016.
The Moorebot is another attempt in the pursuit in a truly helpful robotic assistant that takes up multiple roles and inhabits them skillfully. It’s more advanced than something like the KUMO, not as odd as the Aijia Pro, and not as futuristically minded as the AMY, striking a comfy middle ground where it’s neither revolutionary nor useless. Still, the Echo is better overall even if it lacks the recording aspects of the Moorebot.