Meet Cozmo
The tiny, cranky robot at the center of one cool senior project
If you tell him what to do, he won’t listen. He’ll raise his arms in indignation. Ask him to “come here” and similar to an overtired toddler, he’ll stubbornly nudge forward a millimeter. Strange behavior for a robot, whose personality is a product of his creators’ will, but that’s Cozmo — a miniature despot who fits in the palm of your hand and belongs to four Cal State East Bay computer engineers.
“Cozmo’s personality was preprogrammed, so we can’t change that,” said senior Glenn Norris Jr., one of the robot’s pseudo-parents. “He’s small and cute, but feisty. When I give him commands like ‘Cozmo, go this far and turn,’ if he’s having a hard time computing that, he’ll essentially argue. He’ll just sit there and have a tantrum. He’s like a small pet or child. But it made testing him really fun.”