Robovie-i: Programmable Pet Robot
Vstone, a Japanese manufacturing company, is currently producing robots of the adorable variety. The idea behind these tiny robots is to bring the robotics hobby to a wider audience with smaller, cheaper programmable units to get a feel for how real bots can operate.
from Robot Gossip:
The Robovie-i is a small and relatively inexpensive robot for experimenters. The -i in the name stands for ‘introduction’ to the exciting world of robots.
After you assemble the robot it basically just walks and dances. It comes with ‘RobovieMaker’ software to edit the movements. The file is then downloaded to the little robot.
While I totally understand and appreciate the idea of getting robots into a wider and younger base, the provided video completely crushed my hopes that the Robovie-i could become the robo-butler of my dreams. It appears instead that Vstone has created a much more updated version of a wind-up toy. At $262 a pop, you may be better off with this contribution from reader Evan. The company does offer some other great humanoid bots that do in fact show promise.
