Familiar Machines and Magic Brings AI to Life At Home

Colin Angle, co-founder of iRobot, has unveiled the first robot from his new startup Familiar Machines & Magic (FM&M). Named 'Familiar,' it is a quadruped social home robot with 23 degrees of freedom, a touch-sensitive coat, vision system, microphone array, and an onboard edge AI stack using a custom small multimodal model. Unlike previous social robots that failed due to lack of long-term engagement, Familiar is designed to learn your routines and actively encourage healthier habits — like reducing screen time or prompting outdoor walks. It deliberately avoids speech, instead communicating through physical expressions like tail movement, ear wiggles, and facial cues. All AI processing runs on-device with no cloud data streaming. Pricing is compared to pet ownership costs (~$65–$100/month) but no commercial launch date has been set. FM&M sees this as a platform that could eventually specialize into elder care and parental support.