Submission + - Linux-powered Telepresence Robot Gets Personal (linuxgizmos.com)
__aajbyc7391 writes: Suitable Technologies has announced Beam+, a smaller, less costly, consumer model of its Linux-powered Beam mobile telepresence robot. The Beam+ offers essentially the same capabilities as the professionally-oriented original Beam, but it's smaller, lighter, has a much lower price tag, and offers a few scaled-back specs including reduced audio quality, shorter battery life, and a smaller display. The original Beam model, introduced two years ago, currently starts at $16,000, and the new Beam+ will be sold for about $2,000. However, the Beam+ is currently available for pre-order at a special price of $995 for the first 1,000 units ordered. The remotely-piloted Beam+ can be controlled via a WiFi or 4G LTE cellular connection, and runs Robot Operating System plus low-latency Skype-like video conferencing software on top of an Ubuntu-based embedded OS. An entertaining Beam+ demo YouTube video is available here.