Review: Obi Feeding Robot
A review from first-hand experience.
What is it?
It is a robotic arm mounted to a set of four bowls. A spoon attaches to the robotic arm allowing for food to be picked up from a bowl. With adaptive switches, the user can decide which bowl to pick up food from. Once a bowl is chosen, the Obi completes a programmed movement that ends in placing the spoon, hopefully with food, in front of the users mouth.
Using the teach mode, the spoon can be configured to end in a different position. This is nice because the robot doesn’t need to be in the same place relative to the user to work effectively and comfortably for the user.
What niche is it in?
The Obi is a part of the feeding robot niche. There are two similar products for use by people with little to no arm strength: the iCraft and the iEat. Both the iCraft and iEat are completely robotic, if you exclude switch inputs for the iEat. To get an idea of what are the good and bad features of Obi, I think I should talk a little bit about both.
It’s curious that both tip their hats to Apple. Why? — I don’t know. For me, the i prefix is overused at this point and I don’t like the way it looks. But I guess enough people don’t mind i’s, for it to be successful.
Anyway, who cares about the name, they have no bearing on the function of the devices.
iCraft
The iCraft is a DIY robotic feeding arm built by Seniors at Northeastern University. There are open-sourced instructions and a materials list to build the do-it-yourself device.
Notably different from the Obi, the iCraft uses an eye-tracking input instead of assistive switches. The eye-tracking input works by two pieces of free software on a computer monitor. The software for eye-tracking and the software for the user interface.
I have had difficulty finding the open-source user interface software. But I haven’t contacted anyone regarding the iCraft, yet.
The iCraft, built with the specifications laid out here, is able to pick up food in three separate bowls and to allow the user to drink from a Hydrant water bottle.
To choose a bowl to eat from, the user gazes at one of the four boxes and a selection is made from the user interface menu.
Then after a selection is made, another menu appears allowing the user to make another selection with their eyes.
The ability to drink is another way this device is different and arguably better than the plug-and-play Obi.
The cost for the iCraft comes in at about $950, only including material cost. You might pay someone to build it because it’s not a simple plug-and-play device and will require DIY. Another downside to the iCraft is that it’s not portable compared to the iEat and Obi: it requires a computer monitor.
iEat
The iEat is another robotic feeding arm. But, unlike the iCraft, it’s commercially available. The iEat uses a rotating plate base that attaches to a motor module, that looks like a Dalek or R2-D2 without legs.
If you watch the video you’ll see that the rotating plate gives you capability to choose your food. Hopefully you don’t mind your food mixing — yes, I know, it’s all going to the same place. The iEat is configurable with options for faster speeds, waiting times between bites. An excellent machine for a classic food-fight. INCOMING!
It looks like the iEat comes in at $6700 from this site. I won’t be able to verify this until after the holidays. I’ll update when I have more information. To make a comparison, the Obi is priced at $6000.
Review
I needed the Obi because I had a hard time moving my arms to lift food from the bowl/plate to my mouth. So far I’ve had the Obi for about a month and I’ve been impressed by how well it works. There are some things that could be improved, and I’ll go over those.
Pros:
- It’s plug-and-play (unlike the iCraft)
- It’s portable (unlike the iCraft)
- It has a small footprint — the size of a placemat
- It’s configurable to allow for eating in many positions
- It can serve food from four separate bowls
- It’s quiet
- It looks nice (unlike the iCraft)
- Week-long battery charge
Cons:
- It sometimes fails to pick up any food
- The spoon can’t portion big/small bites
- It’s expensive (compared to the iCraft)
- The arm doesn’t lock into place when not in use
- It doesn’t allow for drinking (unlike the iCraft)
- It can only pick up food with a spoon (like the iCraft & iEat)
Possible improvements to the Obi
- A locking mechanism when Obi is asleep
- Additional utensils: like a deeper soup spoon, fork or a clothespin-like pincher
- A mechanism for drinking
This locking mechanism would help to protect the Obi from damage after a use. This mechanism would keep the arm stationary as the Obi base is transported.
There are some foods that a spoon has a difficult time picking up. Food like salad as an example. A different utensil like a fork or something like a clothespin would be better at consistently picking up salad. And perhaps a deeper spoon for liquidy, soup-like foods.
Finally, while a relatively low-tech solution, a drinking straw that could be attached to the side of the Obi arm, like that on the iCraft, may be helpful to adding drinking functionality to the Obi. The spoon could rotate up and out of the way to allow the attached straw to move to the user’s mouth.
To Close
Within its class of related products, the Obi gets high marks from me. It seems to me that Obi’s bowl system is significantly better than iEat’s rotating plate. I don’t think you’d want to buy the iEat over the Obi: given iEat’s almost $1000 higher price over the Obi.
In terms of portability, the Obi is much more portable than the iCraft. I wouldn’t want to be trapped eating in my home all the time — the iCraft is not something you could bring to a restaurant, without getting any dirty looks.
But unlike the Obi, the iCraft has drinking abilities, which is cool and different. However, you can have these same drinking capabilities with a CamelBak or Hydrant Water Bottle.
Is the Obi significantly better than the iCraft? I think so — but perhaps portability is a bigger concern for me than it is for you. The Obi certainly is significantly more expensive.
For laughs (and some ideas?)
Thanks for joining me on this review. I hope to see you around!
