About five months after spinning off from Boulder edtech and robotics giant Sphero, Company Six has debuted its first public safety robot.
This week, the company announced its ReadySight robot and cellular service, giving first responders and professionals with dangerous or difficult jobs an extra set of eyes.
The 1-pound, throwable, mobile video robot streams video over dedicated first responder and commercial LTE networks. Controlled by the user’s smartphone, ReadySight can stream to unlimited web viewers, giving everyone the information they need to make decisions in real-time.
“We’re the original team behind Sphero’s 15 products and 5 million units in the wild and this is definitely the most complex robot we’ve ever built,” Company Six CEO Jim Booth said.
Company Six originally started as Sphero’s Public Safety Division before spinning off into its own independent company based in Boulder earlier this year.
In May, Company Six closed a $3 million seed investment round led by Spider Capital, with participation from existing Sphero investors including Foundry Group, Techstars, as well as new investor GAN Ventures.
The company was split off with the goal of developing advanced robotic platforms with a highly secure cloud-based technology suite, transforming the way first responders operate in dangerous environments.
With a background in the military, Booth said this product removes the traditional barriers of robotic technology. He stressed ReadySight’s affordability, size and reliability.
“I used some of the first robots in combat and they were really expensive and required specialized users. That didn’t put them in the hands of many, it put them in the hands of few,” he said. “We want to flip that equation over.”
ReadySight’s technology will allow for day and zero light usage, autonomous and semi-autonomous operations, two-way audio communication and unlimited range and usage over nationwide LTE networks.
Damon Arniotes, one of the product leads at Company Six, said ReadySight has a variety of potential uses, from hostile police or military situations to potential hazmat incidents and much more.
“The goal of the product is to provide a tool for anybody with a dangerous or difficult job,” he said. “There are a lot of opportunities to put a product in harm’s way and not a human.”
Company Six has priced the robot on a subscription plan, with video streaming usage plans starting at $99 per month. The company’s specific first responder plans start at $149 per month and include unlimited streaming over priority networks and a free replacement robot if ReadySight is lost in the line of duty.
The company expects to ship the first wave of these products in the back half of 2021.
Booth and Arniotes said they’ll be leaning on their extensive experiences at Sphero to help guide them through this product launch and beyond. They both touted Sphero’s vast technology portfolio and customer understanding as key tenants to help guide Company Six forward.
While Company Six is developing products that have far different intended uses than Sphero’s extensive edtech portfolio, Arniotes said there are more similarities than you’d think.
“Just as Sphero makes toys for kids, it’s kind of a joke but not a joke, you’ve got to make it tough,” he said of ReadySight.
