The guy who made vacuuming hands-free is now trying to make robot companionship a thing. Colin Angle, founder of Roomba, just unveiled his new venture called Familiar Machines & Magic, and it's a sharp turn from cleaning to companionship.
The first product is called a Familiar, a dog-sized robot that looks like someone mashed up a bear, barn owl, and golden retriever. It's got movable eyebrows, ears, and eyes for expression, and it's designed to live in your home and interact with family members on its own.
The name Familiar comes from folklore about supernatural companions, which tells you exactly how Angle is positioning this. This isn't a tool you command. It's meant to feel like a presence in your home.
Angle has serious credibility here. He put 50 million Roombas into homes, so he knows how to make robots people actually want to live with. That track record matters when you're asking people to welcome something furry and autonomous into their space.
For anyone watching the AI companion space, this is a significant entry. We've seen chatbots and virtual assistants, but physical AI companions with expressive hardware are still rare. If Angle can replicate even a fraction of Roomba's success, this category could actually become mainstream.
The company showed a demo video ahead of the WSJ Future of Everything conference. No word yet on pricing or availability, but given Angle's history of shipping actual products at scale, this feels more real than most robotics moonshots.
