Aido, the family robot may seem creepy in appearances, but this smart robot is so much more. The Aido family robot secures your home, teaches your kids, manages your home, etc. See? No so scary after all.
This article takes you through all the features of the Aido family friendly robot. We include videos & in-depth information on the design and concept. So, what’s all the buzz about Aido, your new best friend?
Aido Robot: Design
Aido Family Robot Design
Creators developed Aido with the Uncanny Valley hypothesis in mind. This theory states that a more human-like robot, the less likely people are to accept it. Thus, Aido features minimum human-like characteristics. For this reason, Aido moves about via a ballbot design.
Adio’s overall design mimics that of a dolphin. Why? As far as the designers think, dolphins are highly social animals, living in groups. Dolphins teach, learn and cooperate amongst themselves. Known to form strong bonds, not only with their species but also with others.
Finally, comes Aido. A ballbot, about 3 to 3.5 feet in height, with a touchscreen ‘head’ for tactile inputs. A robot that supports voice recognition and has a projector for output. Furthermore, he has unique charging rings that allow him to charge on his own.
Features: Aido, The Robot That Does It All
Do you need help fixing broken furniture? Aido quickly pulls up a YouTube video and projects a how-to-guide on the nearest surface. That’s right. Aido has a built-in projector.
Yes, Aido capable delivers high-quality streams of your favorite movies. But, this smart robot also provides useful information when needed. The best of all? You only need to ask Aido to find a relevant tutorial. Aido responds effortlessly to voice commands.
Aido moves about using an omnidirectional ball. With built-in obstacle avoidance & object recognition, Aido moves freely throughout the home. Furthermore, His groundbreaking industrial design comes via many hours of testing & user feedback.
OS
Firstly, let’s look at the operating system that powers this smart robot. Aido features both Ubuntu & Android. The Android OS, Lollipop, powers the front-end.
Users have access to a plethora of applications on the Google Play Store. Meanwhile, for tasks such as mobility, WiFi ranging, system guidance, onboard sensors, projectors, etc. Aido relies on the Ubuntu OS.
At this point, we’re not sure if Aido will receive the Marshmallow. However, given the developer’s knack for up to date software, it just might. Android Lollipop significantly increases the user experience as many are already familiar with the Android OS.
Mobility
Unlike humans, Aido has no intuitive sense of movement and positioning. Hence, this smart robot uses a Wi-Fi positioning system. Furthermore, Aido has a built-in object recognition system to help identify everyday items in the home. These systems tell Aido where he is in the home & improve his bearings and obstacle avoidance.
How Aido senses what’s in your home
- During setup, Aido fingerprints Wi-Fi signal strength across the house. He uses it to identify the layout of the home.
- Aido also uses IR and object recognition to build a topographic map of your house. This plan includes elements like furniture, doors & structure of rooms. The robot stores the data in a navigation database.
- Aido judges the space between obstacles. If it is sufficient for him to traverse, he plots a path between them.
Indoor navigation and obstacle avoidance
- You can setup waypoints by taking Aido to various spots at home. For example, you can get Aido to your kitchen and mark a spot as ‘Kitchen’. Aido stores this entry with a Wi-Fi fingerprint.
- Aido builds a path between waypoints to navigate. He judges the space between obstacles. If it is sufficient for him to traverse, he plots a path between them.
- Aido constantly does a frame-by-frame evaluation for moving objects like pets or people. If Aido encounters a moving object, he waits for it to get out of the way before proceeding.
- Aido has sophisticated edge detection feature. This detection system prevents it from spinning out of control when he encounters an obstacle like a staircase.
With his image/object recognition, he identifies items when navigating and decides in real time how to avoid them. Aido uses Uncanny vision’s offline image recognition library that lets it recognize over 3000 objects in under 200ms.
Home Security
Is home security important to you? Aido secures your home using various technology. Aido includes the following sensors:
- Air Quality
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Noise
- Light
- Pressure
- Gravity (4-axis G-sensor)
Aido uses these sensors to monitor your home. He provides incident alerts & carries out task automation. Hmm, let’s break these features down into two sections.
Incident Alerts
For incident alerts, you set up a patrol path. Aido visits these tracks at regular intervals. He monitors the rooms as he passes. This feature is useful for when you’re not at home. Aido automatically sends you alerts via the Aido App for Android or iOS. Moreover, he can also send email alerts. He sends these signals if he detects any of the following:
- Intruder detection
- Smoke detection
- When vital parameters at home like air quality go down
- Noise detection
- Sudden increase/decrease in humidity
- Periodic updates during autonomous patrol
Also, you can set Aido to send you photos & videos. This feature helps prevent false alarms. Now, let’s see what Aido can do in the home automation category.
Home Automation
With its visual & tactile automation, you can configure the Aido robot to perform tasks around the home. Aido’s Task Monitor connects via Zigbee, BLE, Wi-Fi, Z-Wave or DLNA. Additionally, there exists support for infrared connections with microwaves, TVs, speakers, etc.
Moreover, Aido integrates with other appliances like water heaters via optional smart plugs
With his automation service, you can select predefined task flows from a large list of templates. Also, add and save your template list. Lastly, share and download new workflows from the Android Store.
Some of the tasks Aido carries out include displaying an alert when you receive an email from a particular friend. Also, automatically project your news feed 10 minutes after your alarm goes off. And, Aido can switch on lights if ambient lights are too dim. Aido’s Task Automator even allows you to create weekday, weekend or holiday schedules.
Connectivity
As mentioned, this smart robot connects via several means. Via these connections, Aido communicates with well over 10000 smart devices. Furthermore, Aido automatically supports new technology.
Think of Aido as a universal remote. You can control any connected device via voice commands or the touch screen. Turn off the TV, set the alarm & more.
Aido communicates with various devices, including:
- DVD/VCR
- CD changer
- Laserdisc player
- Amplifier
- Tape deck
- Game console
- Computer
- Light controller
- Climate controller
- Cable box
- Satellite box
- Smart Cookers
- Refrigerator
- Washing machine
- stoves and more
Moreover, Aido comes with an optional smart appliance kit. This kit allows you to control devices that do not have interactive capabilities built in. Aido’s smart device package consists of:
- Three smart plugs
: Plug your appliances like an A/C or a water heater into the smart plug. Aido lets you turn them on or off, schedule timings or set triggers.
For example, you can program Aido to turn on the water heater. Set your alarm in the morning. If you forget to turn it off, you can use the Aido app.
- Two smart bulbs
: Replace your regular bulbs with the smart bulbs. Control features like light dimming or turning lights on/off using Aido. For example, you can program lights to dim when you turn the TV on.
Voice Controls
Now, let’s talk a bit about voice commands & Aido. He features a six mic array. Moreover, this mic setup has a dedicated hardware chip for listening to the human voice. Also, Aido has noise reduction capabilities. And, he responds in a conversational & personal manner.
A dedicated voice artist recorded most commonly used sentences, phrases, and words. Also, Aido stores a library of these for regular communication to make him sound friendly. For obscure words, Aido uses standard text-to-speech engines. Furthermore, the bot uses leading 3rd party speech engine. Moreover, this speech engine runs on a custom deep neural net architecture for continuous speech recognition.
So, what does all this mean? Aido can listen to voice commands and reply as well, perfect when you are busy with something else. Voice is an essential part of personality and developers want Aido to sound as friendly as ever.
Video: Aido – Friendly & Smart Home Robot
For more information on Aido, you can check out the FAQ page on their website. Also, if you need to order the robot, check out the IndieGoGo page. What do you think of this home robot? We believe that it’s a bit creepy, but we are just a few.
As always, thanks for reading Aido: A Home Robot Like No Other – Aido Robot Review here on OrDuh! Also, be sure to check out more cool tech before you go.