After shipping a few hundred models to its crowdfunding backers, Misty Robotics released its Misty II robot to the public today.
The large-eyed robot serves as a development platform, so owners can use JavaScript to write new skills for Misty.
“The world of robots today is constrained by this tiny, tiny, tiny group of people called roboticists. And if you want to deliver a solution in a hospital, in a hotel, in a customer service center, in an elderly care facility that involves a robot, you can to wait for a roboticist to build it,” CEO Tim Enwall told Built In. “Developers are the missing link; they’re the key to unlocking thousands and thousands of uses for robots.”
Here’s how it works: Users choose one or more aspects of Misty’s sensory input, like the sound or image data she collects. Then, they write code that interprets that data and tells Misty how to respond. For example, if Misty hears a loud noise, she may roll over to check out what it was.
With swappable hardware extensions and a user-friendly software development kit that includes a no-code-needed command center, API explorer and skill runner, Misty is intended both for upstart coders and experienced developers.
Other notable features include her 3D-mapping capabilities, Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine for machine learning, touch sensitivity, two smartphone processors and microphone and speaker setup.
Developers can share their applications in a GitHub repository, where they can choose to share for free or monetize their creations.
So far, developers have turned Misty into a caregiver for the elderly, a teacher and even a magician’s assistant. She can also be a security guard, roaming fire detector or concierge.
At $2,899, Misty isn’t cheap. But her creators hope she’ll lay a pathway to make autonomous robots a common presence in homes and businesses. As future iterations of Misty grow in size and capabilities, her applications may expand from industry-specific tasks to more wide-reaching support, Enwall added.
“Our team is a small fraction of other teams, and to be able to deliver a mass-produced robot for less than $3,000 that is a developer platform that can go solve thousands of different problems in the world, it is a gigantic achievement by a small group of people,” he said.
Oh, and did we mention Misty can play with puppies?
