Andromeda

Andromeda (also referred to as Andromeda Robotics) is a Melbourne, Australia-based social robotics company that develops Abi, a companion robot designed for residents of aged care and assisted living facilities. Abi is a roughly 120cm-tall robot character that adapts to a resident's personality, ability and language, holds conversations, makes eye contact, gives hugs on request and can resume prior conversations. The company positions the robot as a means of addressing loneliness and social isolation while adding capacity to care teams.

Abi originated as a student project begun during 2020 lockdowns, when founder Grace Brown set out to build a robot companion and recruited engineers from the Melbourne Space Program. For its first eight months the robot existed only as a simulation on a university computer lab machine. The team subsequently spun out, built a walking, talking prototype and joined the Startmate Winter 2022 accelerator. Design inspiration is drawn from animated film characters, and the company has worked with a 3D artist on a consumer-grade robot concept and consulted social robotics specialist Haggai Goldfarb, previously an animator on Shrek.

The company has stated plans to run formal clinical trials and further R&D, to bring Abi to market, and has described longer-term applications beyond aged care, including support for young people with disabilities and licensing of its intellectual property for STEM education programmes.