![]() He, along with classmates Mark Palatucci and Hans Tappeiner, wanted to do something unique with their research. From 2005-2010, Sofman was a PhD student in the well-regarded robotics program at Carnegie Mellon (which is now maybe most famous for being the place Uber raided for talent when it started developing self-driving cars). The Anki crew has been thinking about Cozmo since well before Sofman's Drive demo at WWDC. It's meant largely for children, and it is adorable. It is a $180, coffee-mug-sized, vehicular robot-like a cross between a Furby and a Tonka Truck. Cozmo is its second-third if you count a major update to Drive-launching today after five years in development. Three years ago, Sofman took the stage at Apple's WWDC keynote and demonstrated Anki Drive, a set of artificially-intelligent race cars. "This little guy," Sofman says, "is Cozmo." The robot yelps in a tiny robot voice, flails its single, u-shaped arm in terror, quickly reverses its bulldozer-style tracks, and backs away. I instinctively put my hand out to catch it, but a split second later, the robot looks down, and its blue OLED eyes go wide. It only pauses once it's driven halfway off. After circling the table a moment, it drives quickly to the edge. Sofman, CEO of robotics company Anki, chuckles as the it shakes off the rust of sleep and ambles off its charging cradle. The robot slowly raises its head and opens one eye, then the other, as if the light of the world is just too much. Not in that gadget-y way, like when a laptop screen turns on, though. Boris Sofman taps his phone, and the robot on the conference room table in front of him wakes up. ![]()
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