Robot futures – say hello to Abi, a robot designed for lonely people

Coming out of the pandemic, the whole world was thinking about loneliness and isolation. I was just reflecting on that – the experience of being lonely, not having meaningful connection in your life, and the impacts that has on an individual.

So says Grace Brown, founder and CEO of Melbourne, Australia, start-up Andromeda Robotics, whose Abi robot is an intelligent humanoid built for human connection and companionship.

In 2020 when the pandemic hit, Brown was just two years into her degree in Robotics Engineering, so – like every young person on the planet – she found herself in enforced isolation. She explains:

I had COVID during the Melbourne lockdowns, which were very restrictive. I was fortunate because I still had my family and friends, though I couldn't see them. But it was still a very isolating period. So, Abi started as a companion, a project that I was building for myself ...