AI Household Robot
Software engineer Colin Soguero, standing at left, and creative director Morgan Pope, right, work on Familiar, an AI pet robot, prior to a demonstration at the Massachusetts-based startup Familiar Machines & Magic, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Woburn, Mass.
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The robotics pioneer who helped unleash the Roomba vacuum is now betting that you might one day replace your beloved dog or cat with a plush robot that follows you around your home and adapts to your daily habits. Colin Angle unveiled a four-legged prototype of that artificial pet, called a Familiar, on Monday. Imagine a creature the size of a bulldog with doe-like eyes and bear cub ears and paws, extending itself into a greeting stretch that invites you to pat its touch-sensitive fake fur. The lifelike machine, powered by the latest artificial intelligence technology, would not have been possible when Angle co-founded iRobot in 1990.
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