Anki Cozmo Robot by Anki - A Fun, Interactive Toy Robot, for 8 years to 99 years, Perfect for Kids, White

Now, for those that haven’t seen him, Cozmo is a new toy created by robotics/AI company Anki. Initially released in the USA in 2016, he came to the UK in 2017, and more specifically, came to my house earlier this month. You see, Cozmo was the main thing that my youngest wanted for her birthday. We knew this would probably be the case long before she asked as she spent a lot of time watching DanTDM trialling the toy on YouTube, and she was absolutely enamoured by the thing.But … what exactly is Cozmo? Well, in essence, he’s a friendly AI in the form of a little forklift-style robot. I think that TechRadar put it best when they described him as a cross between Wall-E and a digger, though there is an air of ‘cute jumping spider’ about him too. He really is tiny too, and fits easily the palm of most adult’s hands. Don’t let that fool you though, he seems pretty robust thus far. The real joy comes in how you interact with him though.cozmo4When charged, Cozmo is perfectly capable of trundling around on his own and exploring his environment. And he really does pay attention too, trying his best to identify things. For example, he saw my fleecy slippers and immediately set about figuring out what they may be. He decided that they were an animal. He also likes to play games, usually involving the three power cubes that come packaged with him. The way this works is that he’ll decide on a game that he wants to play, and the Cozmo app (which is free to download to your phone) will tell you what game he’s trying to instigate and how to play. Some of this is pretty simple; For example, in one game, Cozmo and up to two others watch the cubes and try to be the first to tap them when all the lights on each cube match. It’s kinda like an electronic version of snap. What makes it all interesting boils down to one thing though: rewards.cozmo2Yup, rewards. The most expected reward is that beating Cozmo unlocks other tiers to the games (such as switching the light match from one light, to two lights, three lights, and so on). It also gives you in-app currency which you can use to nudge Cozmo into playing particular games or learning certain tricks, like box stacking. The real enjoyment – and indeed the real reward – comes from Cozmo’s reactions though. If he beats you, it’s not unusual to see him perform a victory dance and sing happily to himself. And if he loses? He can get sad, or even get annoyed and start flipping his cubes.What this boils down to is that Cozmo is a cute little caricature of behaviour. He overreacts, but without it becoming a pain. Instead, everything he does is set up to look adorable. Even his facial recognition ability is like this. You ask the app to nudge him into recognising someone, then stare at him. He’ll frown a little, note your face, and repeat the name you entered in the app back in a childlike way. For me, this gave me the opportunity to play Sonic SatAM/Archie with him. So, yeah … he now calls me Princess Sally …cozmo3Of course, if he can learn names, that means he can learn words too, right? Yup, he certainly can. Again, he repeats things back in a childlike way, sometimes even garbling them, but the system does come with filters. Cozmo won’t say anything rude. If you try, he’ll get embarrassed or angry, and make this clear with a combination of facial expressions and noises.Oh, and if you want to know how Cozmo sees the world, that’s easy too! The App comes with a setting where you can watch through Cozmo’s ‘eyes’ and experience his journey at his level.Now, there are some downsides to the adorable little bot. He’s expensive for one. This can be negated a little by the simple fact that he’s not likely to be played with once and then start gathering dust. He’s interesting and interactive enough that most kids will likely keep playing for a long time to come. There’s the power consumption too though: it takes half an hour to charge Cozmo up enough to play for ninety minutes. This isn’t really a bad thing as it forces natural breaks, but I do think that most kids are going to want to play longer than that. I have no idea how energy efficient the system is either. Oh, and while it wasn’t the case for us, I’ve heard that the initial set up has taken a while for some users. That can be frustrating, especially for little ones.So, what’s my verdict? Well, to my surprise, Cozmo is probably one of the best modern toys that I’ve come across. He’s fun, has plenty of scope to grow, and really does make you smile. In a word, he’s just plain cool! Really, what more could you want?Final Score: 5 out of 5

This review is for 2020 Cozmos - but thankfully, very little has changed from the original state of play! In 2019, Anki ceased development of Cozmo (and Vector), but an educational specialist - Digital Dream Labs - bought the rights and Kickstarted new server support for the Vector robot.For Cozmo owners, that means there's a source of new programming tools aimed at kids and education, and a trusted source of spare parts (but only the most obvious ones like treads) - tread your Cozmo with care, at least until new manufacturing or revised models are announced, which is far from certain!So: Cozmo - if you already have one, then you know the app is still working, and if you're about to buy one for your kids I recommend getting a secondhand Android or iOS device to keep with it if they don't already have a smartphone - Cozmo needs the smartphone app, it's his brain, and yes - the better the device Cozmo's app is running on, the more responsive and predictable he seems to be. Compared to running the app on a 2014 iPad, he's a lot sharper and better at recognising cubes, cats and people when running on an iPhone 11.Nothing's really changed in the app over the past couple of years - he sings, he dances, he mistakes your USB cables for fingers and tries to pounce on them, he bothers the cats and he constantly tries to wander off the desk. As a desk companion for a tech-obsessed adult he's awesome, if a bit disruptive; for kids, there are now enough games and routines to be interesting for an hour or so of play a day easily.Consider Cozmo's programming environment like a miniature BigTrak and you're on the right track - you build code with simple blocks in Code Lab, something that Digital Dream Labs has used to put together a workbook that teaches programming concepts. Again, Cozmo is age 8+, and this is a great intro but you'll want to participate with your kids - this isn't quite Lego where you can use it as a distraction.Ultimately Cozmo has a personality and if your kids gel with a quirky robot, they'll explore on their own.For adults, the Cozmo SDK is still available and still as irritating as ever to 'experiment' with, you need to commit.The robot itself is well engineered and very expressive; the reliance on the smartphone app is an irritation, but it's better than Vector where you need to pay Digital Dream Labs for a subscription to keep the cloud-based robot running. It's a shame Anki didn't survive.Given that it's possible Cozmo will return once manufacturing and logistics become less chaotic, I'd be reluctant to pay over the odds for one. At the original price they were very good value though. Vector offers better hardware for similar cost if you're an adult looking for a software/hardware robotics project.

It's an interesting little toy, a smart toy. My hope is that my daughter will actually play with it. Somehow children nowadays play less than we did. For now she plays with Cozmo every day, but only about a week has passed since she got it so it's a little early to say.What I don't like:1. Exposes a WIFI network and uses that as the connection to the device (phone, tablet). Because of this the device can't connect to a real WIFI and there is no internet while playing with Cozmo. This might be seen as good or bad. However it's more work to connect and disconnect networks before and after playing with Cozmo. They could have used Bluetooth and leave WIFI alone.2. The need for the charger pad for starting it.3. It can become boring.What I like:1. Looks like Wall-E and Eva had a baby and this is Cozmo.2. Cozmo actually recognizes us and says our name.3. The fact that the child can start to learn programming was the decisive feature that made me buy it and it really works well.4. I like that I can type anything in English and Cozmo will say it.