Atom comes to android
Japanese robot powered by Intel chip
In Blighty, Intel’s Atom is usually confined to netbooks and MIDs. But in Japan, Atom has been used to provide processing power for a highly flexible robot.
Robovie is powered by a 1.6GHz Atom
Google’s translation of Japanese manufacturer Vstone’s website is a little scruffy, but states that Robovie-PC - a two-legged android – has a 1.6GHz Z530 Atom ‘heart’ mounted on a 100 x 72mm motherboard.
Robovie measures 225 x 115 x 390mm and its frame is littered with polyurethane pads. Why? To protect the droid in case of falls while cycling through its list of 20 user-definable axes of movements.
For example, Robovie can perform numerous leg, arm and head movements. The robot’s hands don’t move, but for a little extra cash Vstone will ship it with a set of hands able to grip small objects.
A 1.3Mp webcam hidden inside Robovie’s head allows you to see a robot’s eye view of the world. There’s no mention of on-board storage, so it looks like saving images and videos taken using Robovie’s ‘eye’ is out of the question.
Robovie has 20 different movements and a webcam 'eye'
Robovie is equipped with several USB ports, however, so you’ll at least be able to see what it sees in real-time.
Shipped pre-assembled and with a wireless controller, Robovie is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Linux. Plans are also underway for Windows 7 support, Vstone said.
Batteries are included with Robovie, Vstone added, which runs on a single internal battery pack.
Robovie is currently only available in Japan, where it will set you back a cool ¥399,000 (£2794/$4476/€3039). ®
COMMENTS
Ultimate Geek Gift?
Many Christmas wish lists are going to have this on them!
The Intel Atom processor has the equivalent power of a Socket 478 Pentium 4 3.2Ghz.
I ran some benchmarks on the Intel Atom N270 and give more detail in this review: http://bit.ly/44CHFm
Surely
Robovie is powered by a 1.6GHz Atom
Should be:
Robovie is powered by a battery
Atom Heart Mother(board)?
All I can say is "welcome to the machine"... I for one welcome our new Pink Floyd quoting android overlords
Another Atom based Robot
UofAZ's Matt Bunting Intel Atom Z530 based Hexapod w/PS3 controller: video http://bit.ly/q6erh.
I took a trip to Tucson last weekend and played around with this device, and had a quick tour of the Robotics Lab. The brains for this hexapod is the fit-pc2, a really small fanless Atom based PC. It has a custom Microchip PIC board to drive the servos, that connect to the PC via USB. The PS3 controller connects to the PC via bluetooth. It all runs using Ubuntu
Matt developed all the s/w independently for the reverse kinematics, which someone smarter than me said is non-trivial.
The biggest cost is the servos, the big ones are $199 each, (and a hexapod has ,duh, six legs), plus two more per leg. Not as many in a Vstone system, but not the $5 versions from Hobby World
Next steps, make a battery.. Its still tethered to the wall wart, but the Fit-PC2 runs off 9-15V, according to their forum. And add a camera, there's enough processing power on-board to do recognition and tracking.
