BFTP Prototype Funding Gives Life to Toy Robots
Even though The Jetsons practically promised it, you might be disappointed that robots are not making your sandwiches, giving the kids baths, or hovercrafting you to work.
However, make your way to Western Pennsylvania and you’ll find yourself in something of a bot colony. In the shadow of Carnegie Mellon University last decade, Sarjoun Skaff from its Robotics Institute, was pretty into technology, entrepreneurship and, yes, bossa nova music – decided to give robots a real go as a career. Meaning “new thing” in Portuguese, the name Bossa Nova stuck, and in 2005 Skaff co-founded Bossa Nova Robotics, a company dedicated to “bring life to robots and robots to life, to enhance the way we live, learn, play and stay safe”.
Getting its start in Pennsylvania – Pittsburgh in particular – proved to be fertile ground. “There are so many organizations in Pittsburgh to help startups,” finds Martin Hitch, the visionary and strategic leader at Bossa Nova. “And it’s so tech-focused.”
But first, let’s talk about these robots. Bossa Nova launched with two toy robots: Prime-8, a saucy yellow gorilla, and Penbo, a pink furry penguin mama. A battery of internal sensors, complements of the fine minds honed by the Robotics Institute, prompt these bots to respond to people and outside stimuli, let them orient themselves after a spill, maneuver around obstacles, respond with humanoid emotions and play games.
With everything out there from computer dinosaurs with glowing eyes to gyroscope-based video games, these Bossa Nova bots stand out in the toy terrain as something close to actual playmates. The difference? It’s actually threefold, starting with the company’s innovative running system. Prime-8 and Penbo offer game-changing locomotion, enabling them to move in a lifelike fashion. “As quickly as befits the character,” these bots literally step over terrain like an animal might, keeping them from tripping on that pesky segue between carpet and hardwood that fouls lesser bots.
Secondly, the Bossa Nova team performed some astounding legwork to understand their consumers and deliver, in Hitch’s words, “an immersive play experience.” In reaction to the bulk of one-function toys that that are quickly trampled in pursuit of the next one, Bossa Nova bots enrapture kids, on average, for over fifteen minutes. And ask any parent: those precious minutes calculate like dog years. The Bossa Nova engineers discovered that programming deep software features could prolong the entertainment value. What they got were robots that can be remote-controlled, have built-in interactive games, perform a series of animations, and, most intriguing, an autonomous mode that allows them to roam by themselves, avoid obstacles, scare the dog…all the cool stuff kids want in an imaginary friend.
Lastly, the developers figured out how to “code personality into the software, and make our bots really, really engaging,” says Hitch. On its own, and in reaction to how kids play with it, Prime-8 can get mad (shoots laser beams from his eyes), be polite (says “Sor-ry” when he falls over) and even act rude (passes robot gas). This lean, mean yellow gorilla’s independence is its most contagious quality, and kids eight and up will marvel at how it races other Prime-8s, plays dodge ball, shoots rubber rockets, even plays laser tag.
For the younger set (around four), there’s Penbo Penguin, a wickedly pettable mother and baby penguin family. Penbo’s specially designed legs give her a cute waddle as she ambles about the room. Pet her head and she dances, press her heart button and out pops a surprise egg with her Bebe inside – which Penbo talks with in Penguish and sways while singing a lullaby. A series of colored Bebes interact differently with Penbo and keep the fun fresh and surprising.
With this kind of technology, the Bossa Nova team could have easily pursued answers for medicine, aero science, or, the most common robot-powered consumer good, vacuum cleaners (“never!”). So why toys? “Because this is way more fun,” answers Martin. Indeed, back in their CMU days, the team helped develop RHex, a six-legged robot designed to test a fast-moving running system for scientific applications. And – seriously – the day they took RHex out for a trial run on a campus walkway, didn’t they run into a visiting group of preschoolers who proceeded to go bananas for the thing. Light bulbs switched on, souls were searched, and Bossa Nova toys were born.
Robotic engineers at Carnegie Mellon University thought they might have the makings of an exciting “personal robot.” After more than five years of working on the mobility features of high-performance legged robots, the team needed a little capital to incorporate, finish their prototype and see if their technology could be translated into a marketable toy in the extremely competitive retail market. The team of Bossa Nova Robotics received a University Innovation Grant from Innovation Works to finish the prototype and conduct market analysis before their spin out from the university. Once out of the university lab, Bossa Nova received a start-up package from the Technology Collaborative which provided office space and grants for technology and product development. Helping Bossa Nova move toward commercialization, Innovation Works provided $325,000 in seed-stage investment and business mentoring. More money and assistance came from winning the Enterprise Business Plan Competition of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. Today, Bossa Nova has two robotic toys on the market in Europe and Asia, with an American launch planned this year.
Having performed superbly in select markets in 2009, Pennsylvania’s favorite robots are poised to penetrate every consumer market this year, and plan to at least double (or possibly triple) distribution by December. In fact, at a January 2010 trade fair in Hong Kong, “they were banging down the showroom door to work with us,” says Martin. “We had 100 percent sell out in 2009.”
The future sees Bossa Nova adding two new robots to the family and parlaying the technology into non-toy consumer goods. What exciting new bots we can expect to solve our household woes is still under wraps. But Martin does promise one thing: “No vacuum cleaners.”
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