Tombot Showcases Enhanced Jennie, its Robotic Animal Companion at CES 2026

Canine are superb animals to have as a pet. They’re extraordinarily loyal and supply us unconditional love and emotional help, creating a robust connection that may positively influence folks’s every day lives. Nonetheless, individuals who endure from Alzhemeier’s illness (the most typical type of dementia) or different cognitive impairments can’t realistically personal canine, as they can not safely look after them or help their every day wants. Enter Tombot, a robotic animal and digital well being options firm that lately showcased newly enhanced cosmetics for its flagship product Jennie, a lifelike robotic Labrador pet designed to revolutionize emotional help and psychological well being care for people with dementia, gentle cognitive impairment, autism, nervousness, PTSD, and different well being challenges.

WHO IS TOMBOT?

Tombot, Inc. is a robotic animal and digital well being options firm based mostly in Santa Clarita, California that focuses on growing robotic animals that rework the every day life of people, households, and communities going through well being adversities. The corporate was based again in 2017 by Tom Stevens after his mom’s Alzheimer’s dementia progressed to the purpose the place she might now not safely look after her canine.

Along with Stevens, the Tombot management group consists of Co-Founder and Chief Know-how Officer, Hank Schorz, and Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer, Jesse Schorz. Earlier than launching the corporate, Tombot’s management constructed a previous startup into one of many world’s largest litigation automation firms. They efficiently exited that enterprise via acquisition in 2011.

Tombot’s first product, referred to as “Jennie” is a lifelike robotic Labrador pet created to carry consolation and emotional help to the 300+ million seniors worldwide scuffling with dementia or gentle cognitive impairment, in addition to people going through psychological well being challenges together with nervousness, loneliness, autism, melancholy, PTSD, and stress. Exceptionally practical and totally autonomous, Jennie mimics the actions and responses of an 8-10 week-old pet, offering the companionship and well being advantages of an actual pet to those that can’t safely look after or help a residing animal.

Tombot Jennie robotic pet companion

Tombot’s mission is to create the primary inexpensive, FDA-regulated robotic pet— offering psychological and bodily well being advantages whereas lowering the necessity for psychotropic medicines and bettering general high quality of life. By serving households, caregivers, and healthcare suppliers throughout home-help, scientific, and long-term care settings, Jennie is setting a brand new customary in secure, interactive companionship and well being monitoring.

The corporate’s objective is for Jennie to be the primary robotic pet acknowledged each as an FDA medical gadget and distant security and well being monitoring platform.

Tombot’s Jennie robotic animal companion was initially unveiled ultimately 12 months’s CES 2025. On this 12 months’s CES 2026, the corporate unveiled the ultimate manufacturing cosmetics for Jennie. Designed in collaboration with Jim Henson’s Creature Store, Jennie’s enhanced look will now be much more real wanting, serving to to bolster the emotional bond formation it goals to supply to seniors with dementia.

At CES 2026, the Tombot sales space replicated a cushty lounge setting with the objective of offering genuine, on a regular basis interactions between Jennie and senior residents. These demonstrations aimed to focus on how Jennie can promote every day consolation and aid for people struggling cognitive decline or persistent loneliness.

Tombot Jennie’s new enhanced look unveiled at CES 2026

Throughout CES 2026, we had the chance to interview Tombot’s co-founder and CEO, Tom Stevens, who talked about that “We launched Tombot to be in service to individuals who endure from dementia or gentle cognitive impairment. Our first product, Jennie, is particularly designed for seniors with dementia, who are suffering from behavioral and psychological signs, loneliness, nervousness, melancholy, delirium, and even hallucinations and violent anger, prefer it was my mom’s case. To handle these signs, medical doctors traditionally have relied upon psychotropic medicines, together with antipsychotic, anti-anxiety, and antidepressant medicines, that are notably arduous on the aged.”

Tombot’s co-founder and CEO, Tom Stevens

Stevens then defined “Dozens of peer-reviewed research to this point present that the place a senior with dementia can type an emotional attachment to an object—historically a human child doll or a stuffed animal—that very same senior will get quite a lot of aid from these behavioral and psychological signs, and in addition a corresponding discount in want for psychotropics. Nonetheless, most seniors identified with dementia don’t actually look after these conventional objects. Analysis on robotic animals present these gadgets considerably outperform mentioned conventional objects and have the additional advantage of lowering ache and the necessity for ache medicines.”

Stevens ended by noting that “The primary downside with such options is that they’re both easy kids’s toys, which have been rebranded for seniors, or they’re prohibitively costly robots, which people with dementia can’t afford and most senior care services can also’t justify that expense. And so, it was our mission to develop a greater emotional attachment object; one which persistently stimulates enduring emotional attachment, however can also be out there at a worth that many individuals can truly afford. To attain this, not solely did we conduct formal analysis with over 700 seniors with dementia, however we additionally centered on having an efficient answer that additionally delivers realism. And that’s how Jennie was born.”

WHAT IS TOMBOT’S JENNIE?

Tombot’s Jennie is a fully-interactive, lifelike robotic Labrador pet created to carry consolation and emotional help to seniors scuffling with dementia or gentle cognitive impairment, in addition to people going through psychological well being challenges together with nervousness, loneliness, autism, melancholy, PTSD, and stress. Jennie is designed to seamlessly match into quite a lot of settings, together with house, hospitals, assisted residing and reminiscence care communities.

Tombot Jennie

At its core, Jennie integrates an array of interactive contact sensors throughout its physique, which permit her (i.e. the robotic) to react to the person based mostly on the placement and depth she is being touched, inflicting it to provide puppy-like reactions that improve emotional connections with it.

What’s extra is that Jennie additionally options voice activation software program, which allows it to react to a person’s voice instructions. For instance, for those who inform Jennie to “converse,” she is going to bark for you. Jennie can reproduce actual pet sounds based mostly on the recordings from a 12 week-old Labrador pet, making it your sound similar to an actual pet whereas offering auditory consolation to the person.

Tombot Jennie

Jennie is powered by a built-in rechargeable battery. Due to that, you’ll be able to recharge it by plugging it right into a wall outlet in a single day, and it ought to final all day.

Tombot’s Jennie additionally works along with the Tombot app, which permits customers to call their pet with a reputation of their liking, customise its performance, and monitor person interactions on a day-to-day foundation.

As the corporate continues to enhance the know-how behind its robotic animal options, so will every individual’s robotic animal companion develop with it. Over time, Tombot will add new actions and instructions that may be simply up to date via its smartphone app.

WHAT ARE TOMBOT’s FUTURE PLANS FOR ITS JENNIE ROBOTIC PUPPY COMPANION?

With greater than 18,000 pre-order and waitlist clients, Jennie has already gained international recognition for advancing robotic options that help emotional well-being.

Tombot has at the moment bought out its first litter of its Jennie robotic pet companions. When you’re excited about buying it, know you’ll be able to be a part of a waitlist by way of the corporate’s official web site. As soon as Tombot is near delivery out their pre-ordered models, they’ll contact costumers with particulars on pricing and availability.

For extra info on Tombot and its Jennie robotic emotional help animal, go to Tombot’s web site.