Iâm a proud investor (and crowdfunding backer) in Misty Robotics. As of today, Misty Robotics has started shipping Misty II to its crowdfunding backers.
The team at Misty Robotics has been hard at working getting Misty in shape to ship. The backers now have a key role in the next step of Mistyâs journey, as they get the first crack at Misty II and her SDK in advance of Mistyâs general availability in the market later this year.
There have been numerous approaches to a personal robot in the past few years. Most have failed. The team at Misty has taken a different approach, emulating the one that the Apple ][ took around the launch of the personal computer, which is to build a platform that anyone can extend with hardware and software.
Misty has been purpose-built as a developerâs platform, with the tools and docs developers need to easily build robot applications which we refer to as âskillsâ. Misty is a bundle of serious tech that includes:
Facial detection and recognitionExpansive field of viewMobile sound localizationImage and graphic display Audio playbackVoice integrationCapacitive touchObstacle avoidancePhoto captureHardware extensibility including Arduino and Raspberry Pi Audio recordingWake word (hint: itâs âhey Mistyâ)Robust LocomotionRaw sensor access. Programmable personalityWhile all the hardware is done, some of the software is still in an alpha form, including spatial awareness, video capture, and 3D mapping/SLAM integration. The neat thing is that Misty is âsoftware on treadsâ so all of this will rapidly iterate as well as be extended by the developer community.
Misty is still available at a pre-order discount, so if you are a developer who wants to explore robotics and become part of the Misty community, jump on board!