Seven years ago, iRobot introduced Ava, a demonstrator designed to show how robots were capable of doing things like telepresence. The robot’s autonomous navigation was impressive. For instance, Ava could avoid moving obstacles at the speed of a brisk walk.
In 2012, iRobot announced RP-VITA, a medical telepresence robot based on the Ava platform. In 2013, iRobot and Cisco collaborated on the Ava 500, a commercial telepresence system with integrated autonomous navigation.
Resuscitating Ava
Now, a startup called Ava Robotics has announced its plans to bring the technology behind Ava to market. Ava Robotics, based in Cambridge, Mass., was founded by former employees of iRobot.
Ava has licensed key remote presence technology from iRobot. It intends to launch the Ava platform as a “new video collaboration solution that offers users ‘practical teleportation’ with the ability to transform remote work and site visits.” A telepresence robot, in other words.
The advantage of Ava over other telepresence robots is autonomy. It can map the environment that it’s deployed in, while remote users can send it from place to place without having to drive it by hand.
It’ll avoid people and obstacles by itself. Even if the user does decide to drive it by hand, it’ll do its best to keep them from running into things.
“Autonomous robotic telepresence solutions such as Ava can have a dramatic impact on improving productivity and collaboration in a geographically diverse global enterprise,” Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot, said in a statement.
Furthermore, Ava collaborated with Cisco to implement the Cisco Spark video conferencing system into the robot.
“We’ve drawn upon iRobot’s 25-year history in robotics innovation to deliver what we call ‘practical teleportation,’. We are pleased to be part of the Cisco ecosystem in bringing this solution to enterprise customers,” commented Youssef Saleh, Ava Robotics CEO.
Ava is available for delivery now. Customers can implement an Ava Video Collaboration Solution starting at less than US $1,000/month.
