Robodynamics’ Luna personal robot was first heard of back in 2011 and has not made its way to the market yet. However, the firm has started a Kickstarter campaign aimed at gathering funds to begin the manufacturing and has also released more specs of the robot.
The robot was designed by Schultzeworks for Robodynamics and has been created as a personal robot that will tackle everyday tasks and according to Robodynamics, it will ‘bring robots to the masses’. Once the development is complete, the company claims that the robot will be adaptable while being affordable and will operate on a human scale.
The company believes that this robot will find its application when it comes to taking care of the elderly people and will aid them in leading their independent lives by keeping checks on their medicines. The company has even suggested that the robot will be able to take your dog on a walk. Robodynamics states that the Luna is capable of all this owing to its design – height of 5ft and a weight of 27.2kg. It has been scaled so that it is able to work in an average human environment and can move on its castor wheels on an 8-hour charge. It comes with an HD camera, microphone and speaker, 8-in touchscreen LCD and a carry handle as well. Moreover, it has a pair of arms that can be manually adjusted.
What the company is particularly proud of, however, is the Mini-ITX motherboard computer that Luna contains. It comes with 16GB worth storage and a RAM of 8GB. The robot has been built by making use of parts that came off the shelf and runs Robot Operating System (ROS) based on Linux. It is also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled. It has an open source software that is capable of running services and apps that can be readily purchased from an app store, thus its customization rests solely in the hands of the user.
According to Robodynamics, Luna will be in manufacturing phase by November 2015 and the first 100 units will be shipped after a month at a price of $1,500.
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