WowWee Tribot

WowWee presented it's new robot named Tribot at CES 2008.

Tribot is funny joke-telling robofriend. It plays games that require you to move it around in certain patterns, and its three wheels give him a good decent range of movement. It also has a motion-sensing controller, allowing you to move it forwards and backwards by simply tilting it where you want to go.

Tribot will be available in the USA at september 2008 for $99.

Robot lion by WowWee

WowWee has expanded its range of Alive robot animals beyond Elvis and a chimpanese to include a lion, panda, polar bear and white tiger cubs.

The new friendly looking robots feature realistic fur, an animated face, and recorded sounds activated by touch and tilt sensors.

Offering fully interactive features, WowWee say that the robots will even has lifelike responses. Picking the lion cub up for example by the scruff of the neck and his legs will go limp, like a real cub being carried by its mother, or leave him alone for five minutes and he will purr himself into sleep mode.

Video:

Rovio by WowWee - An alien in Your home?

At CES 2008 WowWee has introduced Rovio, a robot with Omni-directional wheels and self charging station designed to be used as a survelience robot with Skype Capabilities. Even Microsoft is promoting this little machine.

Rovio is a “telepresence” robot that’s outfitted with the latest in micro-GPS technology from Evolution Robotics. Rovio has a Wi-Fi-enabled Web-cam that allows you to patrol your home while you’re away, via an Internet-enabled PC, console or mobile phone.

This one is an interesting looking robot. With the new GPS system you can drive the robot with shortcut “go-to” commands. For instance, “go to the dining room”. This makes it easy to control the robot remotely over the Web or even from your mobile phone. It also has what they call a “patrol mode” where it automatically sends you pictures of locations you want to check.

With the other cool features, it also has the ability to guide itself back on course if, say your kids pick it up and move it, or if the dog wants to play with it. When it gets thirsty for energy, it can navigate to its charging station from anywhere in the home, and dock with pinpoint accuracy. It’s expected to launch in the second half of the year.

WowWee Rovio will be available fall 2008 for an estimating price of $299.


Video

Pleo

Pleo is a robotic dinosaur designed to emulate the appearance and behavior of a week-old baby Camarasaurus.

It was designed by Caleb Chung, the co-creator of the Furby, and is manufactured by Ugobe. Chung selected this species of dinosaur because its body shape, stocky head, and relatively large cranium made it ideal for concealing the sensors and motors needed for lifelike animation. According to Ugobe, each Pleo will "learn" from its experiences and environment through a sophisticated artificial intelligence and develop an individual personality.

Pleo was unveiled on February 7, 2006 at the DEMO Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona and was expected to come on the Indian and American markets around Fall 2007.

Pleo shipments started on December 5, 2007. The robot is software-upgradeable via SD card or USB interfaces and costs $349 USD.

Ugobe will encourage user modifications of the robot's firmware, providing a graphical interface for home users and an API for programmers.

Ugobe develops robotic technology to animate robots into lifelike creatures with organic movement and adaptable behaviors. Ugobe calls its robots "Life Forms," powered by its "Life OS".

Design

Ugobe's designs combined sensory, articulation, and neuronetics to create the lifelike appearance of its robots. In developing Pleo, Ugobe paid particular attention to the biological and neurological systems of the Camarasaurus, and "re-interpreted" those elements through hardware and software. Pleo was engineered by a group of robotics specialists, animators, technologists, scientists, biologists, and programmers. Pleo is intented to be a fun experience for everyone.

However, it should be noted by any potential buyers that the paint on the skin has been seen to wear off within the first 24 hours and flaking from the paint on the teeth has also found similar problems according to many Pleo owners (http://forums.pleoworld.com/showthread.php?t=503, retrieved 20th Dec, 2007)

Features

• camera-based vision system (for light detection and navigation)
• two microphones, binaural hearingbeat detection (allows pleo to dance and listen to music) - this feature was removed but may be added on again.
• eight touch sensors (head, chin, shoulders, back, feet)four foot switches (surface detection)
• fourteen force-feedback sensors, one per joint
• orientation tilt sensor for body position
• infrared mouth sensor for object detection into mouthinfrared transmit and receive for communication with other Pleos
• Mini-USB port for online downloads
• SD card slot for Pleo add-ons
• infrared detection for external objects
• 32-bit Atmel ARM 7 microprocessor (main processor for Pleo)
  
  • 32-bit NXP ARM 7 sub processor (camera system, audio input dedicated processor)
  • four 8-bit processors (low-level motor control)

Official Pleo site: www.pleoworld.com

Video: Pleo hatches!



Video: Taking Pleo out of the box