R2D2 style!
One of the more interesting companies entering the personal robotics space is White Box Robotics, which is planning to “…create and develop PC-BOTs — plug-and-play robots created almost entirely from off-the-shelf computer parts.”
The Model 914 PC-BOT is their first product, and features a raft of advanced features: speech recognition/synthesis, object recognition and vision-based navigation. The architecture of the robot is based entirely on common PC hardware standards, so it uses PCI slots, standard drive bays, common connectors for CD-ROM drives, etc. It’s a promising idea, and other companies are thinking the same thing: White Box joined forces in May 2005 with Ontario-based Frontline Robotics, a firm which manufactures mobile security robots. Another bonus: Whether intentional or not, model 914 also bears a passing resemblence to the squat, beloved R2 units featured so prominently in the Star Wars films. Check out the White Box website here and founder Tom Burick’s blog here.
(Via nxtbot.com Blog.)
[tags]robot, pc[/tags]
