Robot Pets, Robot Toys, Sony Robot, Robot Dog, NEC Papero Robot, Robot Cat

An Introduction to Robot Pets/Toys

Today, robot pets still remain as clumsy battery-powered animal looks alike objects. The best one commercially available is the Sony Aibo. They are either cheap and lousy, or very expensive. Robot pet is not widely accepted as a replacement for real one. Psychologically, people still prefer a real animals then robots. Furthermore, robot dogs and cats are indeed a very long way from being self-aware. Another limiting factor is that, robot pets are not being able to deal with outdoors.

But bear in mind that the whole idea of a true artificial pet, after all, is that it's a pet for people who can't have, or don't want, to have a real one for reason such as constraints in living area. In addition, robot pets can perform computing tasks such as recording and playing back sound and video, playing games, and many others. These all have justified the existence of robot pets.

NEC Personal Robot PaPeRo
PaPeRo was named after an acronym of "Partner-type Personal Robot." The latest version of PaPeRo, PaPeRo 2005, can hear and respond accordingly even while it is speaking. This make communication natural. There are 2 CCD cameras on the PaPeRo which allow it to see, recognize and distinguish between various human faces. With PaPeRo2005, interaction is more enjoyable thanks to the character recognition, gesture detection and pendulum swing detection capabilities. PaPeRo's extensive network capabilities allow it to communicate with other PaPeRos, as well as personal computers and PDAs. What's more, PaPeRo can even correspond with other electrical appliances in the home, operating and controlling their use in place of humans. Based on the PaPeRo Robot Technology, NEC has developed a version of PaPeRo Robot for childcare application, named, Childcare Robot PapeRo. NEC has enhanced the Childcare PapeRo robot to include the advance human interaction ability as per followings: PaPe talk: PaPeRo will answer child's questions in humorous ways scuh as dance, joke and impression; Pape Face: Now, PapeRo can remembered faces and identify or distinguish who the person it is talking to; PaPe Touch: When someone touch the PaPeRo's head or stomach, PaPeRo will break out in an interesting dance; PaPe Roll Call: PaPeRo can take attendance when children are lined up even these kids are not stand in the correct order; PaPe Quiz: Like a teacher, PaPeRo can give a quiz to the childeren, and when children answer using a special mcrophone, PaPeRo is able to judge who give the correct answer; PaPe Phone: When aparent calls PaPeRo, the PaPeRo will locates their child and starts playing with him/her. Though the above tasks are simple to human, it actually requires sophisticated robotic enginnering to achieve these objectives: Both voice recognition and synthesizing technologies are used in order for PaPeRo to perform PaPe talk. For PaPeRo to operate in noisy environments, 8 microphones and a noise canceller are used in to eliminates noises, as well as to distinguish adults or children voices. Image Recognition technology (e.g. stereoscopic vision) allows PaPeRo to perform the task of PaPe Face. 4 Touch sensors on the PaPeRo head and 5 around its body detects human contact so that the PaPeRo can react to PaPe Touch. For PaPeRo to conduct a roll call, children require to carry PaPe Sack which contains ultrasonic transmitters and wireless microphones. PaPeRo can then first sends ultrasonic command specific to the transmitter, the PaPeRo Sack then reply by emitting an ultrasonic wave. This ultrasonic wave is then picked up by 4 microphones on PaPeRo. With the information, PaPeRo can then computes the child position and identify who is standing there. Similarly, when PaPeRo ask a quiz and a few children answer the quiz simultaneously using the wireless microphone, a voice recognition server process the answers via the PDA and wireless LAN, which then generate the result as who has the correct answer. A built-in mobile phone is integrated within the PaPeRo, so that, parent can call PaPeRo, and the PaPeRo can conduct a TV Conferencing session for parent to view and talk to their child.

The Omron's Tama Robot Cat
Tama, the robot cat from Omron, is designed as a conversation partner for the elderly. She interacts with her owner, needs love and attention and will develop her personality. Just like a real cat Tama has emotions, purrs when stroked and sleeps whenever she wants. Microphones is embedded in the cat's head enable her to recognise her own name and react by turning her head and blinking coyly. By measuring the volume of your words she can tell where you are and how happy or annoyed you feel. Pressure sensors under Tama's fur make up a central nervous system. The more she is stroked by the owner, the happier she is, but mistreating her with a smack will meet with an angry hiss. Using real cat sounds Tama can display the six basic animal emotions of satisfaction, anger, uneasiness, dislike, fear and surprise. Tama can also 19-Feb-2007em centre, allowing health or social workers to send local news, medical information and encouraging messages to elderly people.
The RoboScience RS-01 Robot Dog
The RoboScience RS-01 is a domestic quadruped robot. The RS-01's brain is a miniature PC running the standard Windows® operating. The RS-01 uses 802.11b wireless networking (Wi-Fi) to link to its owners' PC or home network, allowing it to be permanently on-line, giving it the versatility and functionality that consumers want from future domestic robots. RS-01 has a wide range of 'senses' that allow it to interact safely with the world. Its senses allow it to balance, understand its location and give it hearing and sight. The RS-01 can run in two operating modes: In autonomous mode, the RS-01 will think and act for itself without the need for human intervention. It can overcome obstacles and navigating around a house or office on its own. In Explorer or avatar mode, the owner can take control of the Robot dog via voice command or remotely from their PC. An on-board camera allows the owner to log into the robot via the net and drive it around its environment, seeing through its eyes, hearing through its ears and so on.