Sprout the Friendly Robot

Why It Matters

Interest from industry leaders and a focus on shipping a research-grade, multimodal control platform signal a step toward broader commercial and lab adoption of interactive robots, potentially accelerating development of safe, practical human-robot collaboration.

Summary

Fauna Robotics’ new general-purpose platform Sprout is drawing attention from major partners including Disney and Boston Dynamics as a safe, human-friendly robot designed for research labs. Demonstrated by IEEE Spectrum’s editor, Sprout can be teleoperated via VR paddles, controlled through a mobile app with voice commands, or programmed for autonomous tasks using physics-based simulation for real-world motion planning. The robot is marketed as a versatile companion for work and play, able to perform expressive actions like dancing while lacking sensory capabilities such as taste and smell. Fauna’s pitch centers on shipping robust, researcher-ready hardware rather than one-off demos.

Original Description

Harry Goldstein, our Editor in Chief, went to meet Sprout from Fauna Robotics. He was skeptical at first, but Sprout won him over with its robotic charm. Sprout is a general-purpose robotics platform with many options for control. What would you use Sprout for?

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