Drozid: the tune-playing, gun-toting, unmanned autonomous mini-fridge (update)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted April 22nd 2010 12:46PM
posted April 22nd 2010 12:46PM
When Katie Wilson, media designer with our friends at Make, went to pick up her pup recently, she was greeted not by the dog-sitter. Instead, it was Drozid -- part electric wheelchair, part refrigerator, part robot, wielding a laser-scoped air rifle -- that arrived with her change (and a cold beer). Technical details are scant, but it appears to have some obstacle avoidance capabilities (it deftly maneuvers around the parking lot, and even engages in a little soccer with a blue ball) and sports a front-mounted camera for POV monitoring from the inventor's remote compound (garage). Hit the coverage link below to see the thing in action.
Update: Just got a pretty awesome email from Shawn, the man behind the robot. He says it's currently being controlled remotely (as demonstrated in the video), but he is working on "a micro-controller brain with ultra sonic sensors and all that other stuff (compass, IR proximity, X-Bee, and more cameras)." And the impetus behind this project? "To fetch beer from the store around the corner." Brilliant!
Update: Just got a pretty awesome email from Shawn, the man behind the robot. He says it's currently being controlled remotely (as demonstrated in the video), but he is working on "a micro-controller brain with ultra sonic sensors and all that other stuff (compass, IR proximity, X-Bee, and more cameras)." And the impetus behind this project? "To fetch beer from the store around the corner." Brilliant!
This totally puts DJ Roomba to shame.
@tikicult
Any time you can combine guns and beer, it is a good day for America.
Not necessarily ALL of America, just Tennessee.
@Anders
Did no one ever think to offer skynet a beer? Damn, so much loss could have been avoided.
@Smart People Play Tuba What? There's more of America outside Tennessee? I don't believe it till I see it.
@lucasz
No no, its Eh-Mur-ree-kuh
Quick somebody make a, "droid you were looking for…" reference.
@Andronicus This is not the droid you are looking for.
*waves hand in Jedi like manner*
@Andronicus
This is the droid I was looking for, though.
@Andronicus
That's right Artoo.
Set a new course
we're going to cloud city.
Ah. Thats a mighty fine Gin and tonic
Why dont you open up that door of yours and hand me another?
@LAY
you win.
Quick, Kill it with fire!
This is what all refrigerators aspire to be.
I think I have this exact refrigerator, too, except for everything that makes this one cool (in every way but literally).
I call shenanigans. That robotic arm on top is this crummy Radio Shack arm from 10-15 years ago and is not (at least out of the box) USB-friendly; it's controlled with a couple of joysticks (that is, when it works). Did they really connect their robot's brain to that gimpy little claw? That's mean.
@Clavis
I had to give you a '+' for using shenanigans. Thanks, just don't see that enough.
@Clavis I looked in the comments specifically to try to find out where I'd remember that robot arm from... chalk one up for the Engadget commenters hive-mind! Thanks.
I had one as a kid, more like 20 years ago. To me, using it in this context is a stroke of nerd/maker genius.
@Clavis Not only that, the claw is purely mechanical. I have one and I once opened it up, as I wanted to interface it with my computer. Turns out the joysticks don't actuate electronic switches. They physically move gears in and out of position. The entire arm is operated by a single motor and a ton of gears.
The guy who designed this thing was a genius. I was shocked - all that movement on one tiny little motor and a truckload of plastic gears.
Beer Me
Mr. Handy 1.0?
Hey I used to have one of those arms, about 20 years ago. Holy crap I feel old now.
@barry99705 - I had one of those too! It was a lot of fun to play with, but now I want one that's faster, more powerful, and programmable. Also I'd like the same type of manual controls available :)
Commodore monitor, yay!
oh wow, Armatron
@hemmy I wanted that damn thing so badly whenever I flipped through the RadioShack catalogue as a kid.
But nothing compares to.... BigTrak! (Got the trailer, too.)
I hope that robot has ID and is over 21, otherwise no beer for you.
I still have my Tandy Armatron somewhere... I loved that thing.
Does it have other types of alcohol? Then you could take shots while you get shot.
i guess i'm the only one that read this as "Drizoid".