Meet the robotics scientist who’s trying something very different for his first crowdfunded gadget

With about 15 years of experience in developing robots and holding more than 20 patents, Dr. Wu Li-Wei is sitting in front of me with his newest creation. It’s sleek in white and clear plastics; and it’s smart. But it’s no robot.

It’s a water fountain for cats. Called Pura, it connects with a companion app to ensure your cats are drinking plenty. It’s now up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo.

The problem, says Wu, is that cats don’t really feel thirsty in the same way we dο. Ιn evolutionary terms, house cats are still like their ancestral desert cats which get water from the prey they kill. But the food we give our cats generally doesn’t contain enough water. Over time, insufficient water leads to urinary disorders. Kidney failure is the most common cause of illness and death in cats.

There are lots of water fountains on the market, but they tend to be hard to clean – and really ugly. That’s why Wu and his Taiwanese startup is applying some Apple-esque design principles to make Pura more appealing both to cats and humans.

For kitties, it’s designed to let them drink flowing water without getting their whiskers wet, due to the gentle slope that the water goes down. For us hoomans, it’s meant to be easy to clean (a transparent tub holds the water and carbon filter; it clicks into the base with ease using two metal contact points so that it receives power), not splash water all over the floor, and give us metrics about how much water our feline buddies are taking in. Multiple cats in one household can wear a Pura collar tag so that the smart fountain knows which cat is drinking. In the Pura team’s own tests, cats drink 30 percent more from this than from standard cat water fountains.

Dr. Wu Li-Wei.

Wu and the Noacare team already have a Pura prototype ready, running with a beta version of the app. Once both are out to the public in about April next year, the app will give Fitbit-esque metrics and even give owners alerts if a cat isn’t drinking enough.

Quitting Foxconn

Wu quit Foxconn for this new venture, where he was developing robots and robotic processes for the assembly lines that make iPhones, Macs, and a host of other brands’ gizmos.

It seems a surprising departure – both from Foxconn, and from the arc of robotics engineering that he’s been on for so long. “I want my capability to do something with more meaning,” Wu says, adding that he’s now curious to come up with things that have practical applications for people.

Prior to Foxconn, he’s been at other Taiwanese tech titans, such as Asus and Compal.

Pet robots