If you’re the kind of person who spends hours on build-it-yourself radio-controlled models, you’ll love the Robovie-M walking robot.
For the rest of us, well, it seems like more of a chore. I thought robots were supposed to be labour-saving devices. Not this one.
The human-shaped, 30cm machine is one of the few robots of its kind that’s sold as a commercial product.
It’s generally affordable, if 417 900 yen ($3 800) is your idea of a reasonable price for a robot that comes as dozens of little pieces — aluminum slabs, motors, cables, nuts and bolts — all neatly packed in a briefcase.
Assembly requires weeks, if not months, — though the work itself requires no more technological finesse and intelligence than does, say, a model kit.
So says Vstone, the Osaka company behind the Robovie-M. Vstone says it has nearly sold out the first shipment of 100 robots (Instructions are available in both Japanese and English).
We took the liberty of skipping the anguish of assembly and instead played for a few hours with a ready-made robot, whose brain and power source are a 16-bit microprocessor (in its chest) and five rechargeable triple-A batteries.
The Robovie-M is nothing like the cuddly, dog-like Aibo from Sony (the latest model costs $1 800 in the United States) whose popularity stems from its seemingly emotional response to human stimulus.
Even when fully assembled, Robovie-M is a faceless lumpy mishmash of motors, metal parts and protruding cable. It doesn’t have much of what we might call artificial intelligence.
Once turned on, the robot comes to life, walking steadily back and forth on paddle-like feet. It responds very well to slight pushes and pulls on the knobs of a standard radio control.
Yet it can’t do much that’s useful.
Unlike other experimental humanoid robots, like Qrio from Sony and Asimo from Japanese automaker Honda Motor, which would cost more than a luxury car if they ever went on sale to the public, Robovie-M has no digital camera eyes. And it can’t talk or recognise words.
Other robot offerings from Japan are slightly more practical than Robovie-M but tend to cost a bit more.
The four-legged Banryu, developed jointly by Tmsuk and Sanyo Electric, rents for about 242 000 yen ($2 200) a day. It comes with voice recognition, relays images from a digital camera and can be controlled through a mobile phone.
The Wakamaru from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries looks more human with its round head and two eyes.
It can engage in primitive conversation, keeps an eye on your home while you’re away and conducts simple internet searches. The company plans to begin selling it next year for more than 990 000 yen ($9 000), the exact price still undecided.
Fujitsu’s scuttling Maron-1 robot is more affordable at about 319 000 yen ($2 900). It looks like a vacuum cleaner and monitors homes through a camera. The Maron-1 helps run appliances by remote control, can be controlled through a mobile phone and works as a handsfree phone. Fujitsu doesn’t disclose sales figures but says a small number has been sold to corporate clients and schools.
Robovie-M is none too slick by comparison, with its raw, unfinished look. It doesn’t even really have a head. The version I played with had a motor stuck on top of its shoulders to simulate a head of sorts.
But its movements are dazzling to watch.
Among the several moves stored as data files and included with the kit:
the robot drops to its knees and pounds the floor, as if in anguish.
acrobatically impressive, the robot can also flip up on its legs in one jump from lying on its back.
and it can put a tiny ball in a hole in its arm and throw the ball, momentarily standing on one leg like a real pitcher.
Owners can program additional, original moves using packaged software you load on your computer, which communicates with the robot via a USB connection.
It was simple enough. Even I could drag the cursor to make the robot move its limbs. But don’t kid yourself. Achieving complex moves requires hours of work (the knee-drop in anguish is actually 100 separate motions).
The mechanical challenge of Robovie-M doesn’t quite suit my robotic needs. I’ll take something more along the lines of the Jetsons’ Rosie, instead, thanks.
Or better yet, make my machine maid male. – Sapa-AP