Robomotive Laboratories, a small family business in the heart of Cincinnati, is changing how the world sees robotics with their mimic robot, on Kickstarter October first. After launching the company on Kickstarter with the successfully funded Doorbell phone, Brett Pipitone, Robomotive Laboratories' founder, began to indulge his love of robotics, introducing the Cortex: Robot Arm controller a few months later. By continueing to develop the technology, adding joints, cameras, and motion, the Robomotive Laboratories team eventually realized that they’d developed something truly unique and the mimic robot was born. Through a series of interfaces and controls the user is transported and able to see what mimic sees, do what mimic does, feel what mimic feels, and go where mimic goes.
The key to bringing mimic to life is the mimic arm controller with patent pending Posi-Feel grip controllers. A Robomotive Laboratories innovation first developed for the Cortex: Robot Arm Controller, Posi-feel flips traditional force feedback on its head by moving force sensors to the operators controller, and the position sensors to the robot in a position-feedback-force-control arrangement. This allows the use of reasonably sized sensors regardless of the size of the robot, large or small. Transferring this technology to mimic, Robomotive Laboratories has created the mimic arm controller, which employs a series of joints, pivots, and sensors on the controller allow the user to seamlessly control mimic's arms and grippers by moving their own hands and arms in natural ways by wearing the device and holds two simple handles with trigger style grip controllers.
Mimic can also move around on its own power, controlled by the user with an IRS based foot controller. The user places both feet on the controller and tilts forward, back, left, or right to command mimic's movements in natural, hands free ways.
The mimic foot controller allows intuitive control of mimic’s motion while the user also operates the mimic arm controller.
To complete the users sense of immersion, immersion goggles receive 3d video from a pair of cameras in mimic's eyes. Not only does the user see what mimic sees in vibrant 3D, but using a series of accelerometers, magnetometers, and motors the users head motion is duplicated by mimic's head, allowing the user to change view by simply moving his or her head.
All of this technology allows the user to see the world from a whole new point of view, all in an adorable 12 inch tall package. In the words of Robomotive Laboratories founder Brett Pipitone "Mimic represents a technological breakthrough in think about human interfaces by adapting the robot to the user, rather than the other way around."
Robomotive Laboratories realized early that a single version of the mimic robot would not fit all users needs, so backers have a choice of four versions of the robot, each design with a different use in mind and with different feature sets. With this full suite of features the user can completely loose themselves in mimic’s world. "This robot really transports you to an immersive reality. Everyday things seem huge, and you can interact from an entirely new point of view," describes Pipitone. "I can interact with my baby daughter on her level as an equal, while it’s simple enough that my 6 year old son can pick it up and use it. It's an indescribable experience."
The implications of the mimic immersive reality robot are great, and users can be a part of it now by backing on Kickstarter. According to Pipitone, "we've delivered the personal robot of the future. We're still working on flying cars and jet packs."