I trust that I’m not far off in assuming that many of us have considered adopting a pet at least once during the quarantine. But they can be a lot of work and sometimes we bite off more than we can chew. Some pet owners have busy schedules and work their pet’s needs around them, or others might seek out help from a professional dog sitter. Whatever the case may be, Taeuk Ham was awarded the Silver A’Design for his design, Puro, the pet care robot, in order to lighten the load. Puro is a multi-functional, autonomous robot that does…a lot. It implements three distinct modes: play, clean, and air purification. In ‘play’ mode, Puro tosses dog treats when your pet is left alone in order to help alleviate some of your dog’s anxiety. Once the treat is tossed and your pup is munching, Puro enters ‘clean’ mode and vacuums over any fallen crumbs. From there, Puro operates as an air purifier to neutralize odors and suck in loose hairs or strands of fur. One of the many features that come with Puro is the smart cleaning function. Similar to the smart robot vacuum, Puro meanders around your floor in order to collect dust, dirt, hairs, and fur, avoiding your pup and other household items along the way. Moreover, while you’re away, Puro extends its fully-integrated dog-feeding station and also tosses treats in your pup’s direction with help from an implanted camera that maps out the floor and a gyroscopic sensor that tracks angular velocity throughout any given room. This ensures that, even when you aren’t home, your pet’s eating schedule isn’t compromised. Another aspect that distinguishes this design from other smart robot vacuums is the embedded air-purifier that operates with an incorporated air filter located in the machine’s charging station. Once Puro has completed its cleaning of the living room and feeding your pet their lunch or dinner, the vacuum slinks its way into the main charging station to turn the air-purifying function on, which cools down the top, cushioned layer of Puro that doubles as a dog bed. While Puro certainly maintains an eating schedule for your animal friend and cleans up their space for you, you can still take your dog for nice, long walks come evening time and develop that special, close bond during the hours you’re home from work. Furthermore, if you live alone and find yourself cutting corners and speeding around the clock to keep your dog’s eating on schedule, then Puro certainly takes some of that pressure from your shoulders. Having a pet takes responsibility and while Puro, or any other robot, can’t replace that close kinship we feel towards animals, it can help preserve a certain degree of trust between you and your puppy.