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You Can't Lose The Travelmate Autonomous Suitcase - It Follows You
The Travelmate is an autonomous suitcase that follows its owner around like, well, like a puppy.
(Travelmate suitcase)
Travelmate is the first true fully autonomous suitcase. It works seamlessly in crowds, doesn't require any extra peripherals and you can buy it at a starting price of 399$. Travelmate integrates with your smartphone to accomplish complex tasks that no other suitcase can do. It can move vertically or horizontally with ease. You can put more items or perhaps another suitcase on top of Travelmate when it is traveling autonomously in horizontal mode. Travelmate navigates large crowds and is able to recognize and avoid objects as needed. As you can see in the video above, our suitcase is not just a concept – it is a real working model and all of the features demonstrated already work on the Travelmate autonomous robotic suitcase.Travelmate has a battery life of 4 hours when in full autonomous mode and up to 100 hours in stand by mode (meaning when you are using it like a normal suitcase). The electric motor and internal components that enable autonomous functionality take up almost no space in the suitcase, accounting for less than 5% of the suitcase's volume.
Science fiction readers know that John Brunner nailed this one in his 1975 novel Shockwave Rider - he called it the auto porter:
...he nabbed an autoporter and - after consulting the illuminated fee table on its flank - credded the minimum: $35 for an hour's service...From now until his credit expired the machine would carry his bag in its soft plastic jaws and follow him as faithfully as a well-trained hound, which indeed it resembled, down to the whimper it was programmed to utter at the 55-minute mark, and the howl at 58...
(Read more about Brunner's autoporter)
Here's another example more in the fantasy realm from Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett:
The massive wooden chest, which he had last seen rest solidly on the quayside, was following on its master's heels with a gentle rocking gait. Slowly, in case a sudden movement on his part might break his fragile control over his own legs, Hugh bent slightly so that he could see under the chest.There were lots of little legs.
(Read more about Luggage)
End update.
Via Travelmate Robotics.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/26/2016)
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