A Japanese firm said on Wednesday it has created a jellyfish-shaped robot that can alert homeowners to burglars or housesit for their pets — and, when not at work, lounge about and be ”beautiful”.
Roborior, a transparent robot that can glow blue or red, is equipped with a camera, speaker and hi-tech sensor, and can transmit information to an owner’s cellphone or sound an alarm, said its creator.
”We wanted to create a robot that is both beautiful and reliable,” said Yasuhiro Suseki, a spokesperson for Tmsuk Sanyo, a joint robot-marketing firm with top Japanese electronics firm Sanyo.
”As an interior object, this robot easily fits in people’s living rooms,” he said.
Designed by British artist Paul White, Roborior weighs 3,25kg with a height of 27cm, and can run at up to 19cm per second.
Roborior costs about 300 000 yen (about R170 000) and will go on sale in Japan late next year.
Roborior follows another home-security robot, Banryu, which was jointly developed by Sanyo and Tmsuk in 2002.
Banryu, which looks like a green-eyed dinosaur, cost a staggering two million yen, but 30 of the 50 Banryus found buyers. — Sapa-AFP