OhmniLabs Launches First Open Telepresence Robotics Platform

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OhmniLabs (https://ohmnilabs.com/), a Silicon Valley-based robotics company, today announces the first open telepresence robotics platform, called the Ohmni DevKit, to enable faster, cheaper, and easier development of custom robotics applications built on top of telepresence.

The new Ohmni DevKit is based on the affordable, production-grade Ohmni telepresence robot and is designed for maximum hardware and software extensibility.  Any developer can plug in custom hardware (such as Arduino-based electronics, servos, lights), as well as their own USB devices. The newly launched in-call Ohmni API makes it easy to remotely control these devices, with no networking, signaling, or cloud development required. With Ohmni coding framework for robotics, developers can build rich, interactive HTML5/CSS/JS overlays to Ohmni's browser-based calls that can send and receive commands in real time with Ohmni and your custom devices. 

Ohmni DevKit includes:

• 1x Ohmni Dev Edition - ROS dev libraries and modules preinstalled
• 3D printed mounting bracket kit - attach your devices anywhere on Ohmni
• Arduino-based flashlight sample module and reference design
• Arduino power + serial adapter kit
• Arduino libraries and reference code for packet bus

"The future of telepresence is richer interactions with the remote environment. Our customers love the core Ohmni telepresence experience and often come up with creative ideas which require customizations, such as adding medical devices and sensors, ways to emote like getting a hug, or high ower LEDs for nighttime patrol. Our goal is to make this simple with the Ohmni DevKit. We're excited to enable these explorations and can't wait to see what innovations are created," said Jared Go, co-founder and CTO of OhmniLabs. 

Advantages of new Ohmni DevKit:

• Easy to extend Ohmni's browser telepresence UI with your own custom overlays
• No need for network development, infrastructure, or signaling 
• Leverage Ohmni's hardware accelerated HD audio/video codecs
• Full ROS support
• Plug and play support for 3rd party electronics and hardware, i.e. Arduino
• Ability to add your own USB devices, such as depth cameras
• Ohmni OS built on top of open frameworks like Android 7.1
• Modifiable, standard Linux kernel makes it easy to add device support
• Easy to build and deploy using Ohmni cloud robotics development framework
• Customizable height between 4'8" and 4' tall for natural interaction

"The team at OhmniLabs has an amazing and low-cost 3d printing infrastructure, which allows them to quickly iterate their designs. We have enjoyed using their telepresence platforms around our office and look forward to running ROS on their latest product," said Morgan Quigley, Chief Architect and Co-founder of OSRF.

"We were looking for a development platform for our research and nothing suited our needs until we discovered OhmniLabs. We are in the process of using a pre-release version of their SDK to augment the interactivity of telepresence calls with custom hardware and software. OhmniLabs' open platform allows us to conduct specialized telepresence research at a lower cost than competing systems," said Professor Maja Mataric, Founding Director of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center at USC.

The Ohmni DevKit will start at $2,500 with additional modules and accessories being added over the coming months. For more information, visit: www.ohmnilabs.com/developer.html

About OhmniLabs

Founded in 2015 and based in Silicon Valley, CA, OhmniLabs is re-imagining personal robotics. The co-founders, Jared Go, Tingxi Tan and serial entrepreneur Thuc Vu, are robotics experts from Carnegie Mellon and Stanford who believe that personal consumer robots can make a positive impact on people's everyday lives. They have extensive experience in AI, machine learning, multi-agent systems, industrial design, mechanical & electrical engineering and cloud infrastructure. For more information, please visit https://ohmnilabs.com/

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SOURCE OhmniLabs

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