It’s been more than a year since Asus unveiled its Zenbo robot, and it’s currently up for pre-order in Taiwan. So when is Zenbo coming to America?
I have no idea… but I do know that the robot butler/smart speaker-on-wheels passed through the FCC this week.
Documents posted to the FCC website include a user manual, photos of the robot, and pictures showing what’s under the hood.
According to the manual, the Asus Zenbo robot is powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8550 Cherry Trail processor and features 4GB of RAM and either 32GB of 128GB of storage. It has a 10.1 inch WXGA multitouch display which functions as the robot’s face and/or visual user interface.
The manual also says the robot features a 95 Wh battery, but the battery shown in pictures on the website seems to be a 125 Wh battery. It's unclear which it will actually ship with.
Zenbo can also respond to voice commands and works as a sort of glorified smart speaker that can follow you through the house. It features 4 digital microphones and a 15 watt speaker, and the robot s said to support English and Chinese and you should be able to activate Zenbo using a voice command from up to 5 meters (16 feet) away, although it’s only said to support speech recognition at distances up to 2 meters (6.5 feet).
Since this is a mobile device, it also has a drop IR sensor and a sonar sensor, among other sensors. And it features a 3D camera to help it move through space, along with a 13MP camera for shooting photos, videos, or allowing you to make video calls.
The system features 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and has a USB 3.0 Type-A port.
Zenbo uses Android as its operating system, although the software has been heavily customized. Among other things, this lets you stream content from Zenbo to a Chromecast-enabled TV. And you can manage your robot’s settings using an Android app on a smartphone or tablet.
Asus initially promised that the Zenbo robot would have a starting price of $599, but it’s unclear if it’s still on track to sell for that price if and when it goes on sale in the US.
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