Qoobo

Qoobo, released by Tokyo-based Yukai Engineering in November 2018, is a companion robot defined by everything it refuses to have. There is no face, no screen, no speaker and no way for it to move across a room. What the fur hides is a single articulated tail and a set of touch sensors: stroke the cushion and the tail sways slowly, pat it and the tail swings briskly. That is the entire behavioural repertoire. The design argument is that removing the face removes the uncanny valley. A tail carries affect without ever promising comprehension, so nobody expects Qoobo to answer a question or recognise them, and nobody is disappointed when it does not. The robot weighs about one kilogram and measures 320 by 520 millimetres, deliberately sized and weighted to sit in a lap like a sleeping animal. A rechargeable battery runs it for more than eight hours. Unusually for a comfort product, Yukai backed the claim with testing. A psychological assessment of 38 participants in their teens through thirties recorded meaningful reductions in stress while using Qoobo, with the clearest movement on tension and anxiety, depressed mood and fatigue; a separate trial at an elderly care facility looked at positive response. That evidence, plus the absence of a microphone or camera, is why Qoobo turns up in care settings where a talking robot would be intrusive. It sells for USD 188 in the manufacturer's global store; the smaller Petit Qoobo followed in 2020.

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