Moxie is a child-friendly robot designed to be your child's friend

A lot of people had an imaginary friend growing up. The human urge for connection created a connection to be had. Additionally, imaginary friends give children a sense of control and inspire creativity. But what if that friend wasn’t imaginary? What if it was a robot? What if it was Moxie?

Designed by Californian robotics company Embodied, Moxie is a robot designed specifically for children. Since 2020, the robot companion has been available to help children grow and, importantly, give them a connection.

What is Moxie robot?

Embodied’s robot companion has been designed to support social, emotional and cognitive development in children. As remote learning snatched developing children of human interaction, this robot stepped up the plate.

The small, child-sized robot is incredibly emotive. It's tiny frame has slightly exaggerated movements and a large screen on its head displaying a friendly face. Lively animated facial expressions bring the same level of simple engagement as most children’s cartoons.

“Moxie is a lifelike animated character that has an ability to intact with people like we interact with each other,” Embodied CEO Pablo Pirjanian told CNN. “[It uses] fluid conversation, realistic eye contact and body language to build a relationship.”

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Created to help neurodivergent children

Moxie was initially designed to help teach children with neurodivergent conditions. However, as the pandemic stripped kids of daily interactions, the robot’s users became more widespread. As a result, Embodied’s design became famous for its strong success among children.

“Our collective vision is to create robots that benefit society,” Pirjanian told the outlet. “It engages with the child and makes it fun to interact... builds a relationship and starts working on base skills. For instance, we start by teaching children how to parse and label different emotions. [This is] the first step of being able to control your emotions.”  

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