Double Robot Wants to Take Over the Office, Not the World

As I noted, Double's body is really just a tube with wheels, which means it balances itself when standing still or rolling about. An internal gyroscope keeps it upright and, if you give it a gentle push or, as I did, run it into a trash can, it will wobble but not fall down.The robot starts at 47 inches and can extend to a full five feet tall. You manage this remotely, which may also add to the creep factor. That height difference also changes the robot's speed. While it can cruise along pretty quickly when standing at 47 inches, a 60-inch Double slows down significantly. A message on the navigation screen warns you that if you want to go fast, you need to make the robot shorter. This is understandable, considering how the height difference changes Double's center of gravity. In any case, I soon got the hang of shrinking Double whenever I had to travel around the office and growing when I got to a meeting.

Double won't fall over if it runs low on power or if you choose to "Park" it. The robot has two little metal kickstands that quietly fold out when you hit "park" on the Double app.Telecommuting is a fact of our modern work life, but anyone who has done so will likely agree that the lack of face time can be frustrating. You're always the disembodied voice on the conference call, the person people forget to invite to meetings because they never see you. Telepresence robotics like Double can be the solution.First of all,A Robot Making Coffee With a Keurig Is Wonderfully Redundant it's not one robot for one person. Anyone with the proper credentials can log in and control Double. You'll see his or her face on the screen and at that meeting. It may make sense for Double Robotics to add the option of "virtual footsteps" to imitate the sound of walking to the meeting, though, which would significantly decrease the creep factor.

Would I pay $2,499 for a device that my more than half a dozen telecommuters could use? Yes. Do I wish the better in-the-wings solution for charging the robot and iPad was ready today? Absolutely. However, as soon as it is, this is a robot I want in my office. Heck, I want it now.Since the internet giant announced its ambition to create a driverless car within the decade, its fleet of 10 converted Toyota Priuses have led the way in self-driving robotic vehicles. So far they have covered more than 300,000 miles on California's roads without incident. The cars have roof-mounted cameras and sensors that constantly scan their surroundings, building up a 3D map of each route. Last year, a blind man named Steve Mahan was able "drive" one of the cars in Morgan Hill, California.