Joggobot: Flying Robot As Friendly Jogging Companion

Dr. Florain ‘Floyd’ Mueller at the Exertion Games Lab RMIT University is currently developing the Joggobot, a flying robot that will work to interact with the human body, play (i.e., sports exercise), and technology.  Joggobot is based on a commercially available Quadrocopter; however, the Joggobot has been designed with software that makes this quadrocopter a jogging companion. The flying robot has a camera that can track the joggers t-shirt via a special marker on the t-shirt so that the robot always stays close and within a certain distance to the jogger. The Joggobot also has a sensor that measures the altitude to manipulate the level at which the Joggobot flies alongside the jogger.

The Joggobot has branched a new path in research on robotic technology – the use of a robot as a social companion. The Joggobot can act and react to a social environment and help keep the human engaged with a view to help promote exercised-based activities.