Sphero is looking to develop intelligent robots through their spinoff company Misty Robotics. (Image credit Sphero)
Sphero is largely known for their connected robots- Sphero, SPRK+, OLLIE and Pixar/Marvel toy-bots, which are successful in their own right but the famed robotics company is looking to branch out into something more intelligent through their recent spin-off startup Misty Robotics. More precisely, they are looking to bring intelligent robots to your homes and offices.
In a recent press release, Misty (previously known as Sphero’s Advance Robotics Division) expects their intelligent robotics line “will be seen and treated as our friends, our teammates, and a part of our families -- performing helpful tasks, providing safety, and interacting with humans in entertaining and friendly ways that have only been seen before in science fiction.”
Misty Robotics’ teaser image of what their new intelligent robots look like. (Image credit Misty Robotics)
Former co-founder and Sphero CTO Ian Bernstein will transition over to Misty Robotics as Head of Product along with five others from the Advanced Robotics Division to begin developing their new robotic line, which is expected to debut as early as next year. To bring their new line to fruition, Misty has already garnered $11.5-million in venture capital from Series A funding from the Venrock and Foundry Group to get the ball rolling (so to speak).
Couple the funds with the already year and a half Bernstein and company have been developing the new line (under the Sphero banner) and the prospects of them hitting that expected release date becomes more believable. Bernstein is also bringing in some additional help by acquiring Tim Enwall as the CEO of the new company, who brings with him an impressive resume- he was CEO of tech startups Solista, Tendril Networks and Revolv- giving him the necessary skills and knowledge to help make Misty Robotics a successful endeavor.
While Misty released very little in terms of the details of what the robots will be capable of, they did say they are currently planting the seeds for more mainstream devices. “My vision is for Misty Robotics to lead this charge toward delivering the future we were all promised,” stated Bernstein. “We’ve already started to build an amazingly passionate team of roboticists and are looking for more talent to help us build the future.”
It will be interesting to see where their new developments will lead- will we have robots that can learn on the fly using some form of intermediary AI or will they require partial programming in terms of job parameters? Guess we’ll see sometime next year if Misty’s ambitions don’t fall to the wayside.
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