Shunji Yamanaka and Takayuki Futura at Future Robotics Technology designed another AI robot to add to their series – the CanguRo. This time, the aim was to bring a sense of companionship to smart robots. The team was inspired by the era when humans depended on horses for transportation. Back then, the master would whistle, and the horse would come trotting to them.
The designers wanted to bring this feeling back, so the CanguRo has integrated software that allows you to call upon it via smartphone, and it will come to meet you wherever you are. It then turns into a vehicle (an electric bike of sorts) that can take you anywhere you need to go. CanguRo can also do all the other supportive tasks you’d expect from a personal assistant AI robot – such as help you with shopping or contacting people and so forth.
CanguRo transforms itself from an autonomous robot assistant to a self-driving three-wheeled personal mobility vehicle upon request. It can follow you along and move at speeds up to 10km/h. When you use CanguRo as a vehicle, you can either drive or let the robot guide itself.
It even leans with the rider to give off a sense of human-machine integration and has a built-in body-sonic system that pulses like a heartbeat. The faster it goes, the quicker its heartbeat races. The steering has force feedback that transmits the radius of the turn to your arm to top it off.
The team says in robot mode:
…CanguRo operates like a buddy droid in a movie. As a loyal partner, it follows its master in shopping malls, giving help at times. Sometimes it works as a communications terminal, letting its master chat with friends and family members. CanguRo comes to its master upon a smartphone or tablet call, even from some distance away. The fully automatic operation is based on scanSLAM—fuRo’s proprietary SLAM technology. CanguRo is a partner robot that never leaves the side of its master.
It keeps its master safe too! CanguRo can stop itself when it detects a hazard, automatically applying brakes to prevent collisions. This friendly robot was made to offer people a helpful and dependable transportation mode that will find you wherever you are and take you wherever you want to go.
