Cowarobot R1

Robotic suitcase

Cowarobot R1 is a rolling robotic suitcase that follows you around, hands-free. It’s about to be a lot easier to drink coffee at the airport. The Cowarobot R is, first and foremost, a high-quality piece of luggage. It’s a 20″, 33-liter suitcase with an aluminum frame and a 100 percent polycarbonate exterior, so it’s built to hold up to the hazards of shifting contents in overhead compartments. 

Several sensors

Packed into that sturdy frame are several sensors that turn the suitcase into a robotic travel buddy that stays by your side, obstacles or no. With a simple double tap on your R1 bracelet, the CO-MOVE system will plan a path, and navigate COWAROBOT R1 around obstacles, making its way back to you. Able to talk to the team over Skype about what makes the R1 go - and stop, if necessary.

Key comes with the suitcase

The key is a small wristband that comes with the suitcase, which is outfitted with a wide band radio module. The suitcase and wristband communicate with each other, which allows the suitcase to go where the wristband is - while some products use cameras and algorithms sophisticated enough to follow a person using object recognition, that’s not necessarily the right solution here. 

Several embedded sensors

Instead, the suitcase has several embedded sensors, including sonar, cameras, depth-sensing cameras, light sensors, and a GPS chip. The GPS chip is the main way the suitcase keeps track of where it is relative to you. So, not only can the R1 be made to follow you, it can come find you if you’ve accidentally left it behind. Cowarobot has a companion app (Android and iOS) that will allow users to track their suitcase and summon it, if necessary. 

Cameras and sonar on the suitcase

The cameras and sonar on the suitcase enable it to detect the presence of obstacles and calculate how far away those obstacles are - kind of like a Roomba! This also ensures that an overly eager R1 doesn’t send itself hurtling down a flight of stairs while trying to track you down, although we’re guessing that getting the R1 to reliably navigate a busy airport is going to be extremely challenging.