If BB-8 is the robot-of-choice at the moment, then the Rolling Bot may just be about to steal some of its thunder. Think of the amazingly popular Star Wars: The Force Awakens droid, remove his head, and you’ve got Rolling Bot, LG’s new cute and friendly house ‘bot that’s part of its exciting accessory range introduced with the G5 smartphone.
The Rolling Bot you see in the photos and videos here is one of a kind, but the intention is to have him on sale later this year, and we can’t wait to have him wandering around the floor of our homes. Rolling Bot connects to a Wi-Fi network and is controlled by the G5 through a dedicated app, and video is streamed directly to it from the camera on Rolling Bot’s body.
Cleverly, Rolling Bot’s center stays motionless while the spherical sides zip him around. Direction and motion is controlled with on-screen buttons inside the app, which overlay the video feed. The idea is Rolling Bot can be used as a free-roaming security droid that can be tapped into remotely, but that’s all a bit boring. What we want is Pet Mode.
Rolling Bot is literally on your cat’s level. So what better tool to equip him with than a laser pointer, and not one that will be used for giving dull presentations. No, after activating Pet Mode the laser pointer gets swung around the room while Rolling Bot, um, rolls around, thus driving your cat insane. It’s a stroke of utter brilliance — an otherwise completely useless feature that makes us want Rolling Bot in our lives more than anything else.
Sadly, we’re not sure when this will happen. LG’s going to launch a selection of accessories with the G5 phone in April, but Rolling Bot may not be one of them, particularly if there aren’t many in existence at the moment. There’s also a question mark over the eventual price. We’ll keep you updated with Rolling Bot developments, but for now just enjoy the video of him rolling around one more time.
