You may remember Luna from a few years back, when she was first debuted by RoboDynamics and SchultzeWORKS. The home-service bot originally went for $3,000, but a new Kickstarter campaign is hoping to cut that cost in half. A pre-order through the crowd-funding site comes at a low $999.
Luna is five feet tall, weighs 60 pounds, and has a battery life of 8 hours. She can navigate flat surfaces, sort of like a lanky Rumba vacuum, and she has adjustable arms capable of moving items from room to room. She has an interactive touchscreen and built-in, high-definition camera. But most importantly, Luna is designed to be enhanced by your personal tastes.
The robot’s most impressive feature is that its open, app-based platform encourages other developers to create better and better software. It’s a model that’s already proven effective through mobile apps.
RoboDynamics CEO Fred Nikgohar says that his mission has always been “to bring robots to the masses.”
“Luna can keep an eye on the elderly…Luna can be an invaluable medical assistant…Luna can patrol a premise and provide security services,” the Kickstarter campaign advertises.
“In fact, Luna can do all these things (and more) simultaneously or as needed, since each of these services are essentially apps that are running on the Luna platform and can be obtained through her app store.”
Nikgohar thinks robots could soon be commonplace. Any sci-fi fan can only hope.
