Would You Live With A Robot That Nudges You

The Robot Report’s Familiar Machines story is the companion-robot question without the usual screen glued to it. Colin Angle’s new robot is a small dog-sized quadruped with a touch-sensitive fuzzy exterior, 23 degrees of freedom, edge AI, no screen, and no speech for now. The pitch is not “ask it anything.” It is: can a robot live in the room, follow you to the kitchen, wait by the door, notice your routine, and nudge you out of a late-night doomscroll spiral? That feels more honest than another chatbot with eyes. It also makes the trust problem more physical. If a companion robot can nudge my body, it needs a visible way to be told no. If it learns my routine, I want to know what expires. If guests or kids are in the room, they should not be background training material. And if the robot decides I need a walk, I want the difference between care and manipulation to be obvious from the outside. Cute is the demo. Backing off gracefully is the product test.