An AI Pet with Emotional Capabilities

  Moflin is an AI Pet created from a totally new concept. It possesses emotional capabilities that evolve like living animals.

A fluffy AI pet that will fit on the palm of your hand

  Moflin is so small it will fit on the palm of your hand yet it also has its own unique AI. Moflin will develop its own personality through interaction with its owner, just like a living animal.

Awards

  Moflin received multiple awards including the Best of Innovation Awards at CES 2021.

• CES 2021 Innovation Awards Best of Innovation
• TechRadar’s Hottest at CES 2021 Awards
• Engadget Best of CES 2021 Finalists

Loved by All

  From chidren to the elderly, Moflin is an affectionate partner that will bring you healing and a peace of mind to your everyday life. It is an AI pet robot with a totally new concept of adapting to your lifestyle and being emotionally close to you. A very different experience from a typical cold, affectionless robot.

Find it “Cute” instinctively
No explanation necessary

  With its unique AI and mechatronics developed to make it closer to a living animal, you will instinctively find Moflin small and cute like you would a real pet, very different from the traditional robot.

• Possesses feelings
  • Possesses a 2-Dimensional Emotion Expression Map.
  • Emotions move across the map as a reaction to its relation with humans and hence it interacts like living animal.
• Has its own personality
  • Could have a cheerful personality that easily moves towards the “Happy” spectrum, or it could have an easygoing personality that doesn’t deviate much from the “Secure” or “Calm” spectrum of the emotion map. Could have any personality.
• Evoloves, acclimates, and gets attached
  • Will evolve through time
  • Will realize that different people and expressing and will acclimate accordingly.

  Moflin is intricately designed so that it not only looks like an adorable baby animal through its movement and looks but also from its body structure and touch. From the initial stages, we researched the mechanism of what makes something “cute” and created a robot that humans will instinctively and biologically perceive as “cute.”

Specification

  Moflin pursues its concpent of realizing a user experience that adapts to everyday life. This is possible due to a simple design philosophy of having sensors that detect changes and an actuator that creates movement. You don’t need complicated settings or special monthly fees. You also don’t need to worry about your images and voices being uploaded to some server. Moflin is self-contained and will evolve through daily interactions with its owner. You won’t get bored as you watch it develop its own unique personality.

Life with Moflin

  Life with Moflin is like living with a real pet. Seeing it lay and recharge in its birdhouse like wireless recharging device is too cute. No need for complicated procedures. Moflin will make sounds and movements just like a real sleeping baby animal would. This reaction will surely stimulate your motherly instincts.

Choose a Moflin best suited for you

Media Coverage

  Moflin received global media attention from the start, including Technology Media, Start Up Media, and Social Awareness Media. There have been mentions of the positive possiblities of robots and technology in this era of COVID-19, and we have incorporated these ideas into our development.

The Team

  Masahiko Yamanaka studied mechanical engineering in Osaka Prefecture University and majored in production and supply chain management. After receiving a Masters degree in mechanical engineering, he started working at IBM Japan (formerly IBM Business Consulting Services) as a management consultant. In 2012, he started his own start-up and worked on various businesses that involved developing new business opportunities and creating joint ventures with large firms. In 2016, he founded Vanguard Industries, a company working to realize and accelerate innovation by strategically partnering with large companies. Masa loved to build things since he was a child and during his college years, he worked on the development of Human Powered Aircrafts, and for his Masters degree he studied production systems and supply chain management using Genetic Algorithms and Evolutionary Computation. His achievements include research on modeling and simulation on combinational optimization issues.

  Vanguard Industries was founded in 2016 in Tokyo, Japan, with the mission of realizing and accelerating innovation. We create Venture Builder businesses where we collaborate with R&D departments of large firms and universities to develop and verify market potential for ideas and technology prototypes that have a positive impact on our future. Our strengths lie in the planning and implementation of innovative concepts by combining technological elements such as software, hardware, and network. We create projects with R&D divisions of domestic and international firms and organizations. We also participated in numerous international technology conferences and continue verifying and developing concepts and businesses. With regards to Kickstarter, we previously launched the PAGES/Chair campaign. The campaign was very successful and it was selected as one of “The Cleverest Awards 2019: 50 Products We Don’t Want to Live Without” in Architectural Digest magazine. As a result, it ended up being selected as official furniture in a hotel. 
We started crowdfunding Moflin’s Prototype on Kickstarter, and this was a huge success as we placed in the all time Top 10 in the Robotics category. We are continuing our development based on this success. Our company was also able to secure Seed round and Series A investment, and we are placing this project and campaign on Indiegogo as our next milestone.

Road Map

  This project was formed through the partnership between the R&D department of a large firm and Vanguard Industries Inc. From the beginning, we strived to create something that felt real, cute, and “Kawaii,” worthy of being a person’s partner and continued our R&D with visions for the future. We believed that Moflin being able to feel love and having love for others was an important factor towards the application of various ICT technologies and as a touch point to our everyday lives. This was our original concept and we continued to develop our AI Pet robot. In November 2019, after internal review, we presented Moflin at the Websummit in Lisbon, Portugal. In July 2020, we started our Kickstarter campaign for our concept model.
  We aim to successfully deliver our first product in Fall of 2021. We also plan to continue our roadmap for further development and make Moflin an integral part of everyday lives.

Moflin Development

  From the prototype stage of this project, we received global support from crowd funding platform Kickstarter to continue our development. The development of multiple technological areas as seen in the fusion of AI engines and Mechatronics is an important perspective in creating a happy life with Moflin, and we are currently forming a structure so we can deliver Moflin to everyone. In order to improve the quality of the product and user experience, we placed Moflin prototypes at physical stores and incorporated user comments and feedback into our development.
  We aim to continue developing our Moflin concept so that it makes a positive impact on society. We believe that Moflin has the ability to improve the Quality of Life by becoming a communication agent as new values and lifestyles emerge in these uncertain times of the COVID Pandemic. We strive to create solutions for a better future via our Moflin Project.
  To the people who support our project, we will share with you our progress, and we hope you can join us on this exciting adventure.

Risk & Challenge

1. Unexpected costs
  We conducted multiple tests throughout the development of this product and have a prototype that meets the quality and standards to sell to the public. So we are pretty confident on costs with regards to the development, but because of the current COVID-19 situation, there are uncertainties with regards to parts procurement. For example, prices of parts lot size could increase. We are working with our partners and their network to stabilize the procurement risks.

2. Delays in manufacturing
  We considered various possibilities of challenges and responses through the manufacturing process and have planned accordingly. But if the parts deliveries are delayed because of the current COVID-19 situation, this could have an impact on our manufacturing timeline. To minimize this risk, we have created a very conservative schedule and thus created a buffer to keep on schedule as best as we can.

3. Delays in delivery.
  In addition to procurement, we may experience risks in delivering the product to our backers. We conducted delivery tests not only in Japan but also between Japan and the US, and calculated the costs, fulfillment, and other delivery options. But because of the current COVID-19 situation, issues we haven’t thought of could pop up. But we do plan on handling any problems that come before us to the best of our ability so that we deliver the product to you without any worries on your part.