Robots Alive, a Bangalore-based emerging robotics and automation solutions company has created 'Andy’, a personal smart robot that can be enabled by the intelligence of a smartphone or any smart device.
The robotic device which can drive around by being controlled by a mobile phone which is physically connected to the robot. The mobile phone communicates to the robot through the audio cable. The company said any software which can run on the mobile phone and utilise the audio, can be programmed to drive the robot.
According to Abheek Bose, Founder & CEO at Robots Alive who has designed Andy, personal robots today have remained unaffordable due to high costs of the hardware involved. "However, we realised that some of the hardware used in the robot which make them so costly exists even in low-end smartphones today. This include, GPS, sensor, camera and display among others. So using the power of these smart devices, we have made intelligence robots highly affordable," said Bose.
Robotics device of similar nature today costs anywhere between Rs 50,000 to Rs 200,000. However, Andy which comes with two models is available at a price point of Rs 5,999 per unit, according the company website.
The primary application of the robot is to educate young students on robotics and electronics, and also to provide a source of entertainment for them.
"Our aim is to enable robot enthusiasts and students in India to own and explore their own personal robotics platform at a price that is attractive and with features that keep growing. They can in fact create their own apps to enable Andy with more features that they can imagine," added Bose.
Andy currently supports Android-based smart devices. Bose said the company would soon make it available for smartphone and devices that use other platforms such as Windows.
At present, Andy is available for sale only in the company-owned online store. The company is planning to make it available in third-party online stores and large-format retail outlets, soon.