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RoboSapien

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This article is about biomorphic robot. For the Malibu album, see Robo-Sapiens.

RoboSapien is a toy-like biomorphic robot designed by Mark Tilden and produced by Wow Wee toys. The RoboSapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control included with the toy, or by either a personal computer equipped with an infrared transmitter, and an infrared transmitter-equipped PDA.

The toy's remote control unit has a total of 21 different buttons. With the help of two shift buttons, a total of 67 different robot-executable commands are accessible.

They are known to host breakfast shows on Australian television.

Overview

The toy is capable of a walking motion without recourse to wheels within its feet. It is also able to grasp objects with either of its hands, and is also able to throw grasped objects with mild force. It has a small loudspeaker unit, which can broadcast several different vocalizations.

User Modifications

Mark Tilden designed the RoboSapien to be easily modified or hacked. The electronics inside the toy are easily accessed and clearly labeled. A growing community of hackers have devoted themselves to adding new functionality to the robot. Some hacks have added a live video camera, others an LED belt that displays text, headlights, a coil gun, speech synthesis, a "flamethrower" (a small torch) and more.

File:Robosapien robots at the Robocup German Open 2005.jpg
Modified RoboSapiens playing a soccer game.

Other uses

German Open 2005 tournament two teams of three RoboSapiens each played the first Soccer match of humanoid robots worldwide. University of Osnabrück played against a team from Albert Ludwig's University of Freiburg. Replacing the head by a PDA allowed the robot to perceive its environment with a camera, a control program could then react to this via the PDA's infrared sender.

Variants

In January 2007, two new Robosapien variants were introduced at the Toy Fair in London, styled after Spider-Man and Homer Simpson, respectively. The Spidersapien features Spider-Man styled armour, and an array of Spider-Man sound effects. It was launched together with Spider-Man 3. Homersapien was launched to coincide with the release of The Simpsons Movie. He is similarly adapted with sound bites and a sculpted Homer head, as well as a unique Simpsons accessory and packaging.

Facts

The dance command plays an instrumental part from the song You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive.

See also


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