Robots of CES 2021 - The Nine To Watch Out For.

Samsung unveiled an impressive slate of robots, with a coherently slick demonstration by Sebastian Seung, President and Head of Samsung Reseach, the advanced R&D hub of Samsung that leads the development of future technologies for Samsung Electronics.

1   Samsung Bot Handy

Bot Handy is a single-armed robot that is intended as the workhorse of the household. It uses AI to sense and recognize objects and coupled with a giant arm and hand-grip, Bot Handy is able to pick anything from soft fabric to brittle wine bottles for its tasks. In the demonstration, Bot Handy was able to load ceramic plates onto the dishwasher, neatly set the table and gently pour a glass of wine.

2   Samsung Bot Care

Bot Care is an AI-powered butler that takes care of you and your daily activities. As shown in the demonstration, it can remind you to take a short break by recognizing that you have been working on the computer for a long time. Bot Care can also notify you of an upcoming virtual meeting and automatically displays a tablet on top of its head to commence the teleconference.

3   Samsung JetBot 90 AI+

Billed as the world's first "smart robotic vacuum", JetBot 90 A+ uses light detection and ranging (LIDAR) – a technology used in autonomous vehicles to measure distances and identify objects - and Intel® AI to navigate around your home to detect areas for smart cleaning. JetBot avoids obstacles and pets intelligently and is able to automatically return on its charging station. JetBot comes equipped with a camera that allows you to watch your home while you are away. Samsung plans to launch the JetBot 90 AI+ in the US in the first half of 2021.

4   Roborock S7

Roborock unveiled its S7 model during CES 2021. The S7 model performs both vacuuming and scrubbing. Its sonic technology scrubs floors up to 3,000 times per minute, enabling this cleaning robot to eliminate resistent coffee stains and muddy footprints. Roborock plans to launch the S7 on Amazon in March 2021 at a price of $649.

5   LG CLOI UV-C Disinfection Robot

LG has introduced their CLOI lineup of robots steadily over the past few editions of CES. For CES 2021, LG unveiled the CLOI UV-C Disinfection Robot. The CLOI Disinfection Robot stands five feet tall and has an array of three ultraviolet (UV-C) lights on each side. It uses light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensors to navigate within a room and is capable of disinfecting a room in 10-12 minutes. The LG UV-C Disinfection Robot is expected to be ship out in April 2021 and is targeted at hotels, restaurants, schools, health care faciltiies and transport hubs.

You can also find out more about disinfection robots from our earlier coverage of post-pandemic smart building cleaning technologies.

6   Reachy by Pollen Robotics

French company Pollen Robotics introduced their open-source Raspberry Pi-powered humanoid robot Reachy to the world in CES 2020. In 2021, the team unveiled a software upgrade that transforms Reachy into a telepresence robot. Using virtual reality devices, a human is able to remotely operate Reachy and carry out complex tasks i.e. teleoperations. Reachy mimics the actions of the user and is able to "learn on-the-job" from the demonstration of the human operator, making application development for Reachy easier.

7   DARS by ITRI (Taiwan)

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan showcased their Dual Arm Robot System (DARS) in CES 2021 - a robot that can perform different types of tasks for the human using its pair of slim robotic arms and anthropomorphic hands, without requiring specifically designed tools. The DARS is intended for further co-creation with industrial and academic partners and could see innovative applications in industries such as manufacturing, health care and hazardous environment operation.

8   Moflin by Vanguard Industries

The Moflin is like a sedentary robotic pet companion - it is sensitive to touch actions and wags its tail when it is stroked and cared for. It is also an AI-powered pet in that it possess its own personality and exhibits "emotional capabilities that evolve like living animals", as claimed by Vanguard Industries.

9   Moorebot Scout

Moorebot Scout is your watchful and mobile pair of eyes in the house. It is the world-first autonomous home robot for in-house surveillance, featureing a 1080p camera with night vision and two-way audio. This AI-powered surveillance bot navigates using LIDAR and can record videos in response to sounds or motions in its vicinity, with options to store the videos onboard, push to cloud or stream over a smart display. And you can easily control Scout remotely by voice via Amazon Alexa.