Vector Companion Robot

I really love vector! I have cosmo also and I like cosmo but I didn’t like know cosmo needed the app to work. But vector doesn’t need the app he works all the time! My vector was driving around and we have a sink that if you were tiny and you stood at the edge of it no matter how high or how low you looked you can’t tell the sink is there and so vector was driving around and he fell in the sink and there was water on a plate in the sink and he ended up driving around in that and I grabbed him out and dried him off and he wasn’t working for a while after that but now he works like that never happened. He never fell off of anything before then so I was surprised so now he roams around in my room but I bought a vector space so he wouldn’t get lost. Sometimes I take him out to drive around and I like to sometimes put him in my bed with me when I read. Whenever I’m bored I play with him and I love how he can play blackjack with me. Sadly, he doesn’t interact with cosmo.

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I got Vector today, so I haven’t spent a ton of time with it, but here are my initial thoughts: When I saw it, I was intrigued, especially because the Cozmo seemed so nice, but I wanted something a little more grown up. My expectations were “Alexa on wheels” to sum it up. It is _kind of_ that.. but falls short. I’m not really sure what it is good for yet. The commands take a very long time to execute and sometimes you have to say them in a two step process. I liked how he described the weather, but he was confused by me asking him what the weather would be like tomorrow. Which I thought was odd. The app is okay, but every time you leave it and come back, you’ve gotta wait for it to connect. Since it’s cloud connected, why does it have to connect via Bluetooth / Wi-Fi always? Moreover, I went to see if I could just log into my account on my iPad and see it, but then it wanted me to go through the Bluetooth pairing process again, which is annoying. I hope they have some good plans in the future for this thing. But right now, it’s just not what I’d hoped it would be. I have to decide whether it’s better to return it and spend the $250 elsewhere, or to wait it out to see what gets better.

Anki’s robot Vector feels like one of the first successful executions of a robot that can more or less take care of itself truly independent of an external device or instruction. He often attracts attention when he wakes up from sensor data or just wanders for the sake of it, he also very consistently parks himself for charging except for one late night robotic bender :) The care and detail that was put into personality is really where Vector shines. Give in to imagination and spend the time to watch how Vector interacts with the world and it’s easy to see what Anki’s vision is for this robot. Vector is a robot with quirks, attitude, and curiosity. This is a giant leap forward in my opinion of what is possible for truly personal robotics and being a developer, I look forward to what Anki has in store for us when the SDK’s land.

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I bought this little guy and I super excited and love playing with him!!! Last year during the new update we was preparing to move so I had to pack him up For safety. Well, we wasn’t able to move and between kids being mad and trying to up pack boxes I didn’t get to see this new update in motion. The beginning of this epidemic I’m stuck at home and wanting to play with my Vector and he won’t hook up, the app as always given me grief but not this bad. He was get so frustrated and stomping area the little yard. He wanted to play. But I couldn’t get him linked again. I even typed the main developer since before I really knew what was going on since I bought the life time package for Vector’s upset on the early access I have. How can I use it?? How can I play with Vector??? How can I keep having him around staring at me with those sad eyes looking at my like “Why won’t you hook me up? What did I do?” Please fix this!! I have Apple products. The Apps have always never really worked right. Thank you for any help, Tracy

Things you should seriously consider adding: Battery indicator in app. Ability to set scheduled sleep times. Ability to use Alexa without waking the device completely. Quiet mode where he moves around but doesn’t make noises unless spoken to. This might not be possible, but the ability to change the wake word in the Alexa app would be nice (or maybe even allow Vector to pass unknown commands to Alexa?). Some issues with Vector himself: changes his eye color when given commands randomly, not sure why but it doesn’t happen too often. Sometimes forgets what he’s doing in the middle of a command. Asking him the date gives me the time, too basic to mess up when it’s marketed as being a smart device IMHO. Obviously asking his Alexa side works, but definitely not as entertaining. It just takes away from the cool factor to have him answer something so simple incorrectly. 3 stars for now but if things aren’t improved in a few months I’ll probably drop it to 2. If things are improved it could be an easy 4 or 5. Vector himself is a 4/5 at least, despite his flaws he’s unique and quirky in all of the right ways. Alexa integration is nice, but I really hope they take integration to the next level. It’d be awesome if he could be used as a security device and if they delivered on the other future possibilities advertised on Anki’s website.