Amazon could be set to redefine personal robots in 2019, as rumours fly at CES
- Talking machines and companion robots were everywhere at the CES 2019 tech convention in the United States
- There are rumours Amazon will attempt to spread even further into domestic life with a personal robot in 2019
At last week’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Centre were teeming with talking robots of all shapes and sizes.
There were robots that clean, from ForwardX’s autonomous lawnmower and Samsung’s Bot Air that travels around a home purifying air to the self-deodorising LavvieBot, a self-cleaning litter box for cats. For dog-lovers, Sony’s Aibo robot canine made a return to the annual Las Vegas event.
For travellers, the useful Rover Speed and Ovis were on display; both are autonomous robot cases that follow their owners around an airport. Or you could choose to just dump your bags on the back of LG’s Cloi CartBot, one of a suite of helpful robots that autonomously navigate, and come equipped with touch displays and voice recognition.
There were also scores of companion robots at CES, which ended on Friday, such as the mobile Temi and Liku, a humanoid social robot.
With so many shapes, sizes and uses, you would be forgiven for thinking that robots are struggling to find a coherent voice. That’s led some to think that the current start-up-dominated robot scene could soon be transformed by the arrival of a big player.