For a robo hobbyist, the process of developing a creation's custom programming can be a chore. Make a change on a computer, connect the bot, download the change, then set the little guy free and wait for him to fall over. When he does, tweak that custom programming, rinse, and repeat. The Robovie-PC from Vstone turns that on its head, with the robot itself becoming the computer. It has a 1.6GHz
Atom Z530 processor, dual USB ports, a VGA connector, and even Wi-Fi. There's a 1.3 megapixel camera on its head, which shows a lot of potential in the remote control demonstration vid below. Since the robot
is the computer, able to run Windows or Linux, advanced functionality should be much easier to achieve. We're envisioning a little security guard who uploads images directly to the internet, or who taunts cats and takes pictures of their reactions. Naturally, those taunts won't come cheap; the 15-inch tall bot will cost ¥399,999, or about $4,500. That's quite a premium when compared to the company's $540
Robovie-nano announced a few weeks ago, but we think you should go ahead and splurge.
[Via
Plastic Pals]
posted October 5th 2009 7:32AM
To be combined with 2 giant Gundams... aaaaaaaand FIGHT!!!
Gundam Fighto! Ready! GOO!
Rather overpriced for a toy that does almost nothing.
I await the day when robots don't walk like that anymore.
so his usb ports are located in his ass ?
Are you a robot?
whoah! a 1.3 megapixel camera on his head....
I guess you can tell how long this robot has taken to be developed. :-)
Surprisingly, it doesn't take insane resolutions to perform a lot of image processing tasks. Often, the processing is performed more quickly and with good results using very tiny resolutions, as scanning super high res image data becomes slow and unresponsive. SONY's QRIO, for example, did navigation and face/object recognition with a resolution of less than 320x240 pixels.
sweet! now we're able to build our very own little ninja assassin remotely controlled over WiFi ...
Skynet has begun deploying it's Trojan horse army.
And it transforms into a Netbook
Can it do the chicken dance like the Honda robot
I think he'd be a lot more practical with wheels or treads; he's a bit unsteady on his feet, I think.
It's the birth of the anthroPCs! /glee
(check out www.questionablecontent.net to see what I mean)
((Don't worry, it's not pr0n, it's a webcomic))
It's great but until they can find a way to get these things back on their feet once they've fallen over the fun is short lived!?
Simple. Add part body flexibility, some programming and another 0 or 00 to the price :)
The embedded accelerometer can be used to tell the robot when it is lying face down or on its back, triggering an automatic "get up" motion. This is a common feature in most hobby kits today including the Robovie-PC. Oddly enough, the ability to stand up from a prone position has not been demonstrated by Honda's ASIMO.
Great, now when the robots take over humanity they will have my porn and my credit card numbers.
If it looked like a normal PC case then transformed into a robot that was at the same time still a PC that would be sweet.
I'd buy it just for fun if the price was around $500. I think I'd buy one if the price was around $1,000. But $4,500 is a bit too much for a toy...
This is meant to be a long-term hobby/research project. Consider how much money a person might spend on other hobbies (be it sports, video games/entertainment, photography, etc) and the $4500 price tag becomes easier to swallow. Obviously if you aren't serious about it then there are cheaper options out there.
It runs windows? Where's the reboot button located?
I say we call it Awesome-o
Needs that mini VGA projector built into his head. Then he'll be the awesomest computer robot.
Here's another Atom Z530 based robot, but this is a hexapod uses the fit-pc2 and a bluetooth PS3 controller, http://www.youtube.com/user/blegas78
This is such a copy of the iPhone....
Ah no worries about these things taking over the world. Just throw some full screen Youtube at the thing and it will explode.
Jeez, why wouldnt they go with a Cortex-A8 instead ? Less powerdraw, smaller footprint, cheaper, same or better performance.
did that bot just give me the finger at the end?