ANKI Cozmo/Vector

I personally think that Anki’s Cozmo was an absolutely incredible feat in both mechanical engineering and creative design. Specifically, I found it amazing the lengths the company went through to build out Cozmo’s personality. First, they hired some amazingly talented designers and animators from the likes of Pixar to help bring life to Cozmo’s personality. Then, borrowing from the world of psychology, they leveraged research around the big 5 personality traits. By triggering different emotions via external signals and blending those with the right personality traits, they were able to create a real time, life-like robot with a stunning amount of emotion and personality.

Weekend Project

So, a few months ago I spent a weekend throwing together my own Cozmo, using some spare parts from my electronics junk drawer in an attempt to build a personality with emotion and personality similar to Cozmo. A super fun project, and a refreshing break from building browser experiences. Here’s a video of my Cozmo waking up and then slowly drifting back to sleep.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZuffLfxkoJZj53QZ9

I hope you find this as inspirational as I did!