drozid
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Drozid: the tune-playing, gun-toting, unmanned autonomous mini-fridge (update)
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!
