There is a strong wave of physical companion robots going on right now, but most of them lack interaction without a screen. Colin Angle, the man behind the popular Roomba brand, wants robots to do just that, and he has created a new startup named Familiar Machines & Magic (FM&M) for this project. Rather than simply talking to you and interacting with visual effects, this pet robot is meant to form long-term, emotionally intelligent relationships with people.
The main highlight of these companion robots, named Familiars, is consumer physical AI that makes them capable of outperforming screens in the emotional field, as people tend to respond more strongly to physical presence. They are powered by physically embodied AI systems that allow them to not only perform physical tasks but also understand, communicate, and respond in intuitive and supportive ways.
According to FM&M, the onboard edge AI stack is powered by a custom small multimodal model optimized for social reasoning, combining vision, audio, language, and memory to create socially responsive behaviors in real time. Another cool feature is that FM&M’s pet robot utilizes on-device, edge AI to reduce latency while strengthening privacy.
The Familiar robots are designed to interact with people in a natural, social way, rather than to perform heavy-duty industrial tasks. Instead of depending on screens or displays to communicate, they express themselves through lifelike, full-body movement so humans can understand them more intuitively. They express themselves through animal-inspired body language, facial expressions, and sound. The maker says it allows for 23 degrees of freedom for both lifelike movement and expressive behaviors.
Instead of looking like humans, these robots are designed in a more creative shape optimized for interaction in everyday environments. Each piece is covered with a custom touch-sensitive coat, a vision system, and a microphone array and audio system to support rich interactions. It looks like a cross between a dog and a bear, and is designed to spark a connection with its human-pet interaction.
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The robot responds to facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language, while it also learns your household rhythms and adapts over time through life with the people around it. It is built to understand situations, remember past interactions, and adjust how they behave over time, which helps them feel more familiar with people. Overall, their main goal is not to mimic humans but to be engaging, reliable companions that fit naturally into everyday environments.
Familiar is a pet-inspired robot, but can understand and support you in ways real pets can’t. Angle introduced the first Familiar robot powered by FM&M’s Consumer Physical AI platform during a live conversation with Wall Street Journal Technology columnist Christopher Mims at Future of Everything. He was joined by co-founders Chris Jones (former iRobot CTO) and Ira Renfrew (former Outrider CPO), with a team pulling talent from Disney Research, MIT, and Boston Dynamics.
Via: Press Release/ Mashable
