Meet the robots of CES 2023

Some robots are highly trained productivity machines, helping grocers fulfill online orders or farmers separate crops from weeds.

Others shake a feather for your bored cat.

We found both types at this year’s CES, the world’s largest consumer electronic show.

Photos by Monica Rodman/The Washington Post

And while many consumer robots are more flash than substance (does anyone really want a robot in charge of their child’s playtime?), there’s something charming about their often clumsy attempts to make our lives a little easier — even if some of these bots never make it to market.

Whatever makes CES robots such a delight,here are some of the most intriguing from this year’s show.

Photos by Monica Rodman/The Washington Post

GULIGULI pet companion

Want to delight and/or terrify your pet when you’re not home?

Check out this companion robot from GULIGULI. Shine a laser, shake a feather or broadcast your own voice in real time. Skittish cats, beware.

Pyxel

Pyxel isn’t the first robot designed to help kids learn to code. But it might be the easiest to start with — at least, that’s what creator Educational Insights says.

It uses an uber-simple language called Blockly to help newbies get the hang of foundational programming concepts.

Dog-E

This robot dog is “an amalgamation of different trends,” maker WowWee USA said.

Dog-E borrows from crypto parlance, “minting” into a unique design after you power it up.

This service robot isn’t available in the United States yet, but Aeo is sanitizing surfaces and “monitoring” elder-care patients (yikes) in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, according to maker Aeolus Robotics.

Its swappable hands equip it for different jobs.

Miko Mini

Miko Mini is an interactive robot intended to keep children engaged.

Children can play freeze dance, learn arithmetic or do yoga with the help of a talking “companion,” while parents check in from a paired app. It comes equipped with facial recognition and can “see, hear, remember and sense a child’s moods,” according to the company. Proceed with caution.

SentiV

This spoke-legged robot, made by a French company called Meropy, is designed to roll through fields of crops in search of plants plagued by rot, pests or disease.

Because its cameras are so close to the ground, the company says, SentiV can give farmers a better sense of problem areas than drones.

/The Washington Post

Storagy

Storagy, a small autonomous delivery robot, can interact with certain kinds of elevators so that it can drop off goods to colleagues — or customers — on different floors.

It’s kind of cute in an industrial sort of way, and that design also lets you stack up more standardized storage crates for it to lug around, but it did run away when a human-controlled, four-legged bot came over to say hi.

/The Washington Post

Hi-Bot

Hi-Bot is a robotic guide meant to roll around and assist people in museums, hospitals and convention centers, much like the one we found it in.

Beyond interacting with the public, Hi-Bot also has a built-in air purifier and aroma diffuser — and it clearly looks good in a cat costume.

Flagship Optimus Prime

If you grew up a fan of Transformers, Robosen’s limited-edition Flagship Optimus Prime could be the holy grail of collectibles.

Not only does it switch between robot and vehicle forms by itself, but you can program the Autobot leader to pull off some sophisticated moves — like the dances we spotted on the show floor.

RichTech’s Adam

RichTech’s Adam may look like a low-level enemy from a video game, but don’t be fooled.

The company claims that this robot’s arms move with the precision needed to make a consistent cup of coffee — or a cocktail — each time.

Sproutmation’s robotic arm

Speaking of coffee, we found this robotic arm from Sproutmation and Dobot operating a Keurig.

It doesn’t always work as a barista, though — some versions of this “collaborative” robot are designed to aid in physiotherapy.

This year, CES spans more than 2 million square feet, which means there are certain corners of the show we haven’t discovered yet. And maybe, just maybe, one of them contains the kind of robotic companion we’d welcome into our lives with open arms. For now, the search continues.

John Locher/AP

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Credits

Video editing by Monica Rodman and Jonathan Baran. Photo editing by Monique Woo. Production and editing by Karly Domb Sadof.