Anki

In 2010, graduates of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute formed Anki to create consumer entertainment experiences. Some six years later, the world was introduced to Cozmo, a cute, socially intelligent, vehicular robot that learns, evolves, and becomes more sophisticated with use. A recent upgrade to Anki’s Cozmo app lets kids control the robot with a drag-and-drop interface that transitions to real programming languages—a feature Anki hopes will encourage young kids to code and—who knows?—maybe go on to create a next-generation robot that makes Cozmo obsolete. In August 2018, Anki announced a new affordably priced robot, Vector, funded by a Kickstarter campaign that ended in early September with close to $1.9 million raised. Vector is a robot that feigns social awareness--a highly intelligent robot aware of his surroundings through touch, sight, and sound.