The robot butler has been five years away for about twenty years. Weave Robotics thinks the trick is to aim lower. Its new home robot, Isaac 1, does not walk, has no fingers, and mostly just wants to do your laundry. It also costs a fraction of its humanoid rivals.
The Y Combinator-backed startup unveiled Isaac 1 on Wednesday. The launch post has passed 13 million views. At $7,999 up front, or $449 a month, it undercuts the field by a wide margin.
A Roomba with arms
Isaac 1 is deliberately un-humanoid. It rolls on a wheeled base rather than legs, and rises from a crouch to 5ft 9in when there is work to do. It grips with two orange claws, not fingers. The soft body comes in muted colours with names like Sage and Terracotta, and it runs for about eight hours per charge, according to TechRadar.
The job list is narrow on purpose. It finds and picks up dirty clothes, folds and puts away the clean ones, makes the bed, fluffs the pillows, and tidies away shoes and toys. Notably, it does not load or run the washing machine. It works through a phone app, mostly on its own. Weave admits a human operator can take over remotely for tricky tasks.
