MarsCat

DESCRIPTION

MarsCat is a Research-Robots from Elephant Robotics. It is built for Companion, Entertainment, Research.

MarsCat is Elephant Robotics' bionic robot cat, which the company calls the world's first bionic pet cat. It is a quadruped home companion rather than a remote-controlled toy: it acts independently without being given instructions, walking, running, sitting, stretching, sleeping, kneading, biting its nails and even burying litter of its own accord. It responds to being touched on the head, jaw and back, and can be picked up and hugged. It hears and responds to voice, though Elephant Robotics is explicit that obedience is not the point - "it will not always follow your command, it has its own feeling". Object recognition lets it see and chase moving things, so it plays with teasers, a toy ball and a toy fish. The personality system is the centrepiece. MarsCat has six character types that develop through how you treat it, shaped by how often you speak to it, how enthusiastically you interact, how much it moves and the tone of the sounds around it - so two cats diverge over time. It runs on a quad-core Raspberry Pi and the code is open source, published at github.com/elephantrobotics/marsai, so it can be reprogrammed. The MarsApp for Android and iOS handles remote interaction and customisation, it charges itself, and its eye colours can be changed, with clothing and accessories sold separately. Elephant Robotics also positions it as a non-allergenic alternative for people who cannot keep a live cat.

FEATURES