Okay, so a few months ago, I was talking about a Robosapien, and was all thinking that they were going to be these near-autonomous things. Not quite, but they’re a lot closer than I thought it’d be. There’s a manual with it that I haven’t actually seen yet (it’s in my bag, gimme a break), but what you end up with is a little walking, (sorta-)talking robot who can reach down and pick up a little cup and then dump the contents over it’s own head.
It’s kinda cute, but I don’t like the sounds, so I’ll have to hack that asap. Paul at work had thought that they had some sorta USB port in them or something (and they don’t), but I’m sure it won’t take much before people start hacking these little guys and adding WiFi to them or something. I figure I can also reprogram a set of buttons on my universal remote to be the same as my Robo-Remote.
Right now, the main thing I’m totally amazed about is the ability for this little thing to walk around while wobbling it’s hips back and forth. They saved on a knee joint by making it walk kinda like an oompa-loompa. Pitches back and forth to almost 45 degrees, but it means that it can get a decent step forward when it wants to. Pretty neato.
Further news as events warrant.
