Aire — A Self-Flying Robotic Assistant for the Home.
Thanks to exciting new drone technology, if you are one of those folks who frets over whether they’ve left the iron on at home while sitting on an island miles away, it will soon be possible to oversee most aspects of your home while you are not actually in it.
What’s more, this self-flying home robot drone, ‘Aire’, produced by Aevena, promises to be affordable for most households and is currently available via a Kickstarter campaign. Starting at $699 Aire will be the first flying robot to be introduced into the market which has been designed to specifically fit into the home environment.
Aire will be capable of autonomous flight, responding to certain voice-prompted commands; Aire is apparently smart enough to keep itself upright in the air and avoid obstacles and can be safely flown indoors without crashing into too many objects.
This unique piece of robotic technology has a number of innovative features and also a pleasing design. Aire’s sleek shape and fabric exterior renders it less sinister and threatening and is safe to use at home around children, the elderly and pets and ‘chocked’ with sonar sensors all around for obstacle avoidance.
Aire has powerful processors which enable it to fly and navigate indoors even without GPS. When nearing the dock, it automatically docks and charges itself with the click of a button. Aire comes fully equipped with 360 degree obstacles avoidance using a combination of sonar and 3D depth sensors.
Its main camera is 4K and has night vision when used in the dock. Over-the-air-updates will enable new features and modes of operation in the future. Aire’s technology is exciting in many ways; it might allow you to scan your entire home for insurance purposes, or create a 3D map of your home when remodelling is planned.
Aire could search or patrol your home for anomalies and has far more features than a traditional security camera setup, or a traditional drone. On a more casual basis the drone’s camera, enables you to take high quality photos of special moments i.e. video conference with your family via its built-in microphone and speaker with voice control functionality.
Aire fortunately does not sound or move like a typical drone – it sounds more like a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer which is ironic as it looks like it was designed by Dyson!
According to founder and CEO Jeffrey Tseng their aim was to produce a drone which would help people connect with their homes while they were away and strike the right balance between an intelligent, high-tech robot and a family-friendly, lifestyle product.
The design needed to not look too technical and avoid becoming ‘just another gadget’ at odds with the home environment, but also not ‘ toy-like’ so it’s capabilities were not undermined. The collaboration between Aevena and Huge Design, an industrial design firm with a background of work on personal robots, has resulted in what promises to be a premium and intelligent robot that might fit effortlessly into the home.
Editors note: We want one and can you balance a coffee cup on top of it ?