Cozmo comes to the UK! Anki’s £200 ’emotional’ robot plays games and learns news skills

If you’ve always wanted a pet but don’t like the idea of feeding it or cleaning up after it, Cozmo may be for you.

Anki’s ’emotional’ robot with a ‘brain’ goes on sale in the UK this Friday. The makers say its personality is a mix of charming and mischievous, and the more you play with it, the more skills it unlocks.

Cozmo has only been available in the US until now, but will go on sale in the UK for the first time on 15 September, along with Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the Nordic countries. In the UK, Cozmo will be on sale from Amazon, Argos, Harrods, John Lewis, Smyths Toys, Toys R Us and Anki.com.

“We’re bringing together robotics, artificial intelligence, game design, and film-like features to create a robot that people can form a physical and emotional bond with, just like a pet,” says Boris Sofman, CEO and co-founder of Anki.

“Cozmo not only represents a significant engineering milestone but is also a physical manifestation of the types of robots we’ve come to love in our favourite films.”

About the size of a child’s hand, the little robot toy can be easily carried around the house.

Cozmo comes with a free app, which gives the owner ideas of how to play with it, free software updates and its own interactive Power Cube toys. It can play peek-a-boo, give a fist bump or even flip over if you put it on its back. And when Cozmo gets ‘hungry’, he can replenish his energy using the cubes.

Elsewhere, Cozmo has a base charger and has been drop tested, so the company claims it is pretty sturdy. If you want to try out different colour treads or a carrying case, however, you will have to buy them.