Romo smartphone robot back on Kickstarter

Last fall, a little tank treaded robot turned up on Kickstarter called the Romo from Romotive. The Romo used your iPhone as its brain to control the tank base to allow the little bot to perform all sorts of tasks. The team behind the little robot is back on Kickstarter right now looking for more funding.

The developers want the additional funding to help make the robot smarter, faster, and easier to use. The team says that they have redesigned the robot from the circuit board up and then set up production at a manufacturer in China. The developers are now trying to raise money to improve the software and are seeking another $100,000.

This next-generation Romo robot is described as "almost" everything a personal robot should be. The developers say that the new bot is cute, responsive, and really fast. The developers want to use the money raised to develop software to allow Romo to perform two-way telepresence, computer vision, autonomous navigation, and facial recognition.

The team says that with funding the new features will be released as updated apps. The team also promises to wrap a SDK around each function allowing developers to create their own apps to share. A pledge of $150 will get you one of the first next-generation Romo robots. So far, the team has raised $42,931 out of its goal of $100,000. The team has 28 days to go so it's very likely they'll get the money they need.