On Mar 9, 2022 the first prototype of the flatcat robot became a two years old. The robot is still healthy and functional. It is used on a daily basis by @x75 to control his weird synthesizers (“huh, but the sound is gloomyβ¦ π₯Ά”). What is happening there? It is happening that the motion of the robot is controlling the sound. Wah!
You can enjoy all of this in one single piece in the video below. If you cannot get enough, there is two more of them. Find them on Youtube and post the links in the comments. Thanks for hanging in β₯οΈ
The first prototype of the #flatcat robot just had her second anniversary. On the occasion they had a party with some friends over until they dropped.
What I love about Flatcat is that she reacts always differently to touch and her Environment! The funny little Sounds she made and her extremly soft feeling. In my Opinion she comes pretty close to a Bio Pet but is one of a kind, and not everyone owns a Flatcat so to me she is very Special π Some don’t like how Flatcat looks like or that she is Creepy! I think it is a lot more important what is on the inside, just like with humans, where it is more Important how you are than how you look like. π Please watch that Video
We have built the friendliest robot in the world, and we need your support to make more of them.
In all the craze and frenzy, take a minute just for fun and google “friendliest robot in the world”. Don’t know what you will be seeing, but for me the results are remarkable, both in gem and dire. Let’s review this. What got me to this, is that I think with flatcat we have created
1/ the friendliest robot on the planet (frop)
It might be creepy to some but it is just friendly nonetheless, no matter. To celebrate, let’s come up with an appropriate retronym for flatcat, for example
2/ flatcat, friendliest live adaptive technology cuddly auto telic
Either way I needed to research existing claims in direction of “friendliest robot”. And what I get is essentially this: various lists of “top 12” and “most advanced” hard-shell social or humanoid robots exempt the revered Paro; direct references to Blue, Pepper, and Kuri; and one IEEEspectrum article.
What is friendliness and affection without touch as a mode of communication? From all I can see, none of these robots is able to actually touch a human person. If they are, no one wants to be touched by them. So they might be “able” to touch a human but that might not feel so good for the human. flatcat communicates with people only by touch, nothing else.
Gakutensoku was a very early robot design that considered friendliness on a fundamental level, done by biologist Makoto Nishimura, who was motivated by his shock from seeing Karel Capek’s theater play “Rossum’s Universal Robots”. Gakutensoku appears to have been Japan’s first functional robot ever, as a side effect.
The robot he wanted to build would celebrate nature and humanity, and rather than a slave, it would be a friend, and even an inspirational model, to people.
To summarize these results, friendly robots are few because somehow no one is incentivized to make them. If they are made, friendly companionship is somewhat misunderstood through the severe disconnection of mainstream engineering from simple facts of human psychology. And, there is a very early precedent, which is coming from a clearly bio-inspired thinking.
For us, friendly robots are just the answer, and we do think that friendly adaptive technology makes a difference for people now, and will do so even more down the road if they are wild and friendly. To continue this mission, we need your support and are looking for team members and funding. Give us a shout, spread the word!
Very pleased to announce that flatcat has been selected as a finalist for the Robot Design Competition during ICSR 2021 – International Conference on Social Robotics, 10-13 November 2021, Singapore, https://colips.org/conferences/icsr2021/wp/competition/
Update – List of finalists for robot design competition at International Conference on Social Robotics 2021 has been posted with flatcat on there π
It was an difficult Birth! But they are fresh Born now π and Hopfully curios to the World and Envoirment soon! With your help they will Constantly learn, play and can bring a lot of Joy in your Life! So lets start the first Journey with our first five Flatcats!
tl;dr Shipping has to be delayed by at least one month.
While we are busy all week pushing things ahead, we have come to run behind our planned schedule. There is two main reasons for this. The first one is big changes in both our personal lifes that require urgent attention. The second one is that we are beginning to feel the accumulated sum of small friction losses in sourcing as well as more administrative outside interactions.
Thus we have to update the timeline and push back the expected date for beginning to ship by one month to end of October 2021.
We do have four major tickets open before we can do that, which are assembly, furs, software updates, and packaging. Right now we are actively working on the first three of them. Packaging is still in the back row because we first need the set of shipped items to consolidate before it makes sense to design a packaging.
assembly
Printing of parts has finished with this stack of tail pieces
The first ten energymodules successfully assembled and tested for basic function. This board goes into the tail piece shown above.
Starting with the stock motors, replacing dumb boards …
… with smart sensorimotors, our Supreme motor control IP.
First thirty motors fully assembled and ready for electro-mechanical testing.
fur
Washing test of flatcat fur, all three types of fur freshly washed at 40 degree C, which they all seem to have survived well, healthy, and in shape. The grey and the red fabric have arrived and we expect the first few furs from the production batch to be delivered to the lab tomorrow. Golden autumn supplies are expected sometime this or the next week.
flatcat UI
Here’s a first screenshot of how the update and configuration app could look like. Development is done in collaboration with Richard of mr. hide.
π cognition wear
All three base colors for the jetpack sweater successfully prototyped and ready to be made in batch and brought to the street.
Campaign duration extended to end on October 11, 2021 11:59pm PDT
Delivery option pick-up-at-lab which has been requested cannot be added to claimed perks – please pledge for delivery to Germany and we will refund you when you pick up your items.
