CES in Las Vegas wrapped up on Sunday but not before introducing some new robots including one that mows the yard, clears the driveway of snow and even blows leaves.
The Yarbo is an autonomous robot that comes with several attachments to various tasks outside the house. It uses artificial intelligence to navigate a yard or driveway and avoid obstacles.
“You tell it what the boundaries are of your yard. But it mostly uses its own sensors to know where to go and what not to hit,” says Brian Cooley from CNET.
Robots can also assist farmers. John Deere already has self-driving tractors. Now, sensors on a robotic attachment can differentiate between weeds and crops to deploy weed killer sparingly. And a new system called ‘Exact Shot’ makes sure fertilizer is only used on the plants that need it.
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“They’re able, they say, to reduce fertilizer use by 60%, in the best case, on a large farm,” Cooley says.
From the farm to the hospital. The Aeo robot is designed to assist medical workers. It has digital eyes, comes with one hand that can grip and another that uses UV light to disinfect surfaces. Aeo can respond to voice commands, carry up to eight pounds and has an infrared camera to move through facilities on its own.
“It can go and check on residents. It can do deliveries overnight and just work all night in the dark,” says Dan Haddick with Aeolus Robotics.
Aeo can also take pictures. At CES the robot showed how it can lift an iPhone and then say, “Hey Siri, take a selfie.”
And kids can now have their own robot dog. Dog-E from from WowWee toys responds to petting and communicates through its tail. When the tail wags it lights up and shows words or symbols, letting you know it’s hungry or wants to play. Each robo-pup sold also has a unique personality.
“The personality could be sweet, it could be lazy, it could be protective, it could be active, etcetera. There’s over a million different combinations of what you can get,” says Jessica Kalichman from WowWee.
The dog-e sells for $79.99 and should be available in the summer.
