From Hackaday
I have something that follows me around all the time: my dog Jasper. His cargo-carrying capability is limited, though, and he requires occasional treats. Not so this robotic suitcase. All it needs, the designers claim, is an occasional charge and a Bluetooth device to follow.
Designed by NUA Robotics, this suitcase is equipped with powered wheels and a certain amount of smarts: enough to figure out the direction of a Bluetooth signal such as your cell phone and follow it. This is also accompanied by proximity sensors so it doesn’t bump into you or other people. When the built-in battery runs out, just pop put the handle and pull it yourself, and the regenerative motors will recharge the battery. There’s no indication on price, battery life or how much space is left to actually carry stuff yet, but the designers claim it could be out within the year. As someone who uses a walking stick, this sounds like a great idea. And if they can work out how to get it to walk the dog for me, that would be even better.
Now, who will be the first to build a clone of this in their basement? Bonus points if it’s a two-wheeled self-balancer.
Full article here
Comments
@Jack
https://www.abiresearch.com/market-research/product/1018920-ble-tag...
Obviously, no-one will ever figure out how the BLE localization works, but you can already see the problem if baldy starts running & how bad the accuracy is.
But can it do tricks?
What does it do when you go into the mens room in the airport?
That's an especially tough AI problem for robots....
Great,
a friend of mine purchased used follow-me golf chart and turned it into follow-me rover for use at his farm.
My robot vaccum cleaner has follow-me functionality built-in on power down,
tracking charging station.
If you move tracking station further robot can follow-it.
It is 2-drive wheels + 1 support wheel system, not fir to carry heavy suitcase
but follow-me devices have great future.
This is a new take on the "follow me" function complete with obstacle avoidance.
Regards,
TCIII AVD