bots IN BRIEF
18 SERVO 08.2016
FLIRTEY FLYIN’ HIGH
Congrats to Flirtey for once again making history on the drone delivery front. The
Nevada-based startup has successfully
completed the first ship-to-shore drone
delivery in the US.
Flirtey drones carried medical samples
between an onshore medical relief camp at
Cape May in New Jersey and a test facility on
a vessel stationed off the coast. In a round
trip, Flirtey drones then delivered medical
supplies from the vessel to the onshore
medical camp.
On the first leg, Johns Hopkins loaded
Flirtey’s drones on shore with different lab
samples, and Flirtey delivered these to the
ship. On the second leg, Flirtey’s delivery
drone landed on a barge on turbulent seas
and was loaded with medical supplies, including water purification tablets, insulin, and a first aid kit, and then
delivered these ship-to-shore to representatives from the United Nations and the American Red Cross.
Flirtey — which conducted the test flights with Dr. Timothy Amukele, assistant professor of pathology at
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine — said drone deliveries could provide life-saving aid to victims of
natural disasters, especially along coastlines when road systems are damaged.
SHARE A COZMO WITH FRIENDS
Anki (which made its splashy debut a few years back with their little autonomous racing cars) has announced a
new robot toy called Cozmo. Cozmo is (according to Anki)
“one of the most sophisticated robots available today. He is
charming, a bit mischievous, and unpredictable. He recognizes
and remembers you. He interacts with you, plays games, and
gets to know you over time.”
Cozmo works by being tethered to your phone over
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. All of the visual processing is done
through an app/cloud which analyzes data from Cozmo’s
sensors and then sends commands back to the robot itself.
Cozmo can recognize faces, play a variety of interactive
games, not fall off of things, and return to its charging dock
autonomously, where a 10 minute charge gets you about an
hour and a half of run time. It’ll be available this fall for $180,
or you can pre-order one for $160.
The big attraction of Cozmo, according to Anki, is the
fact that it can “connect with the humans around it” and
“[bring] the magic of a robotic character to life.” “We’re
creating something that really does feel like it’s part of the
family,” Anki says. To do that, Cozmo has what the company
calls an “emotion engine,” which “evolves as you develop a
bond” with the robot. “So call him self-aware, call him almost
human.”
