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ER1 Personal Robot Reviewed
Makarand writes "The Mercury News is carrying a review of
the ER1 Personal Robot
from Evolution Robotics Inc (of Pasadena, CA). The ER1 resembles neither a dog
nor any robot in sci-fi movies.
It is a 3-wheeled platform (resembling an industrial table) holding a laptop (running Windows)
for its brains and a Web camera for its eye.
The ER1 sells at $600 (laptop not included). For an extra $100 you get a completely assembled ER1.
Evolution plans to sell expansions like grippers and infrared sensors in the future. If your laptop
is Wi-Fi capable you can drive the robot around inside your home or control it using the Internet from anywhere."
Tiger has the kit version here.
I've done some robotics work before. In my experience, embedded controls is usually the way to go. If you want to make some really simple robots, start off with a nice little PIC processor. There are tons of pages dealing with them on the internet, and they are pretty cheap (between 8 and 20 dollars). You don't need anything too extravagant like hard drives attached to your robot, and you can build a serial interface to let it talk to your PC. They also sell C compilers for them (there might be a free version as well).
Another good processor is the Motorola HC16 (or the HC12 or the HC11). This series has many output ports for controlling the different motors that you might decide to hook up to your robot. However, buying one with an Evaluation Board may be a little expensive though.
Also, read up on pulse width modulation and controls algorithms, you need to use them a lot to make your motors go. Unfortunately, the motors can be the most expensive parts of the robot. The ones with motion sensors on them can cost quite a bit (I think the ones that we used in the RPI Robotics Lab were something like $130 each). You might be able to just get a hobby motor for much less, but do some research into the interfaces between the motors and the processor before you make any decisions.
Finally, if you look in catalogs like Digikey, a lot of the vendors sell robot kits. Some of these are based on PIC processors and others are based on easier stuff like BasicStamps. They are not very expensive and can be quite fun to play with
Good luck, and have fun!
-Montag
>> I don't know too many non-programmers who write Python.
I do. I know lots of people who can easily pick up the basics of python, vbscript, javascript, and yet don't know how to compile the linux kernel (or even care).
Lots of people know to embed macros and scripts into their office documents, and yet aren't computer scientists, or nerds.
You shouldn't assume that just because people don't give a shit, doesn't mean they're incapable.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Lets add armor and weapons to these things and we got autonomous robot wars! Personally, I've always wished that those robot-battle type shows on tv were autonomous instead of remote controlled. Now THAT would be a challenge.
If you're short of spare parts, you could do worse than muck around with a virtual equivalent.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
- It has a camera.
- It can move around on its own.
- You can control it through the Internet.
- It's running Windows.
Aha.Check out these guys http://www.lynxmotion.com
Personally I like this one http://www.lynxmotion.com/images/jpg/pballs.jpg
http://www.collegiaterobotics.org
There are plenty of robotics clubs, but probably not enough. : \ By becoming part of a club or starting a club, you could do exactly what you said with the assistance of fellow members.
Pasadena company's robot is fun, but not very useful -- yet
The ER1 personal robot won't make coffee, pick up the newspaper, vacuum the floors or even walk the dog. With prices starting at $599, it seems most adept at emptying wallets.
But beyond the not-so-cheap shots, the robot has a lot to offer. Like the personal computer kits of the 1970s, much can be learned -- and perhaps someday much money can be made -- on the road to usefulness.
And don't forget the prestige from being the first on the block with a robot smarter than Sony's canine-wannabe AIBO.
The ER1, sold by Pasadena, Calif.-based Evolution Robotics Inc., resembles neither a dog nor the robotic stars of science-fiction movies.
The 2-foot-tall, 20-pound machine is a three-wheeled platform that holds a laptop, its brains and has a staff that carries a Web camera, its eye. Some might confuse it with an industrial table.
All parts are included except the most expensive -- a laptop running the Windows operating system. Plan on spending at least another $1,000 if you don't already have one.
For the mechanically challenged, Evolution sells an assembled robot for $699 (still minus the computer). But anyone who opts to plunk an extra $100 for the assembled version is missing half the fun.
The ER1 is more of a hobby than a toy. It's not recommended for children under 14, unless they're supervised. Schools might be interested in using the robot to introduce the basics of robotics and programming.
It took about two hours to assemble my ER1, which came in dozens of pieces tightly packed in a box along with 100 screws. Two Universal Serial Bus cables plug into the laptop.
Once installed on the laptop, the software shows a live shot of what the robot's camera sees, various behavioral options and the robot's battery levels.
The instruction manual is especially well done, rare for a high-tech product. It clearly outlined all 32 steps to finish the job and made sense out of the various trusses, gussets, set screws and U clips.
After a few hours of charging the battery, we were ready for our first test -- a routine in which the ER1 recognizes its box and moves toward it.
My ER1 immediately recognized the box but instead of driving toward it, it backed away as though it had been abused at the factory. (Turns out the camera pointed in the wrong direction. The test worked fine after I adjusted it.)
Such tricks -- including most of the other 50 or so suggested in the manual -- are neat for showing off to neighbors or entertaining at parties. Besides following its box, the ER1 can play music, sing when it hears a loud noise, teach words to a parrot and even warn that it spots a beer can.
The recognition scheme is quite impressive. It could tell the difference between different denominations of currency. It even recognized me as long as I was wearing the shirt I had on when my image was originally captured. It didn't know me from Adam when I put on another shirt.
But the true power of the ER1 is in the ability to layer programs on top of one another, leading to more complex behaviors. Users familiar with the scripting language Python can create even more complicated tasks.
The possibilities are limited only by imagination and hardware. Evolution also plans to sell expansion kits, such as a gripper ($199) for grabbing that beer, and infrared sensors (price to be determined).
Evolution says the 12-volt rechargeable battery that powers the robot's motors can last up to three hours. My laptop battery died long before that.
I had the most fun driving the ER1 around using my home wireless connection. Because my laptop is wireless-capable, I could control the unit from my desktop computer and see everything the robot could see through that computer.
In fact, I could have controlled the thing from anywhere in the world over the Internet, provided I left a few holes open in my firewall.
Is the pieces they use to build it. Its extruded aluminum channels from www.xbeams.com. They go together with plastic connectors. Think big erector set.
Also along those lines is www.8020.net, which I think is probably the original source of the xbeams product. They're tailored more for the industrial construction set, with a CAD program that translates designs into orders for the extrusions. Of course, it only runs on Windows... Cool stuff, though.
I have had my eye on one since before they came out back earlier this year. They do have professional systems based on Linux as well as a developement kit in Python for all you OSS critters. There just isn't as large a market of people with Linux laptops as there are with windows. Frankly, It looks like a good first step to Usable hobby configurable robots. This thing just need to grow up a little -- and release a Linux version.