Heathkit Reincarnates the Hero Robot

DeviceGuru writes "Heathkit, which produced and sold mobile robots aimed at hobbyists and students back in the 1980s, is about to reenter the educational robot business. Heathkit's new HE-RObot incorporates an onboard computer running Windows XP Professional on a Core 2 Duo Processor. It stands 21 inches tall, weighs 55 pounds, and has a built-in 80 GB hard drive, IR sensors, bright LED headlights, and lots of space for custom project circuitry." As robots go, it also looks very much like certain models of SGI workstation. Now I'll need to update my 1980 Christmas wishlist -- it's probably lost between pages of Popular Mechanics.

Comments

linux!

[prichardson]

I hope the drivers for all the robot parts of this are available for linux. What good is a robot if it doesn't run linux?

In all seriousness, why would they go with Windows XP? That really doesn't make sense to me. Linux works better as a headless operating system, and would allow for more tinkering.

Re:linux!

[the_brobdingnagian]

The Microsoft Robotics Studio is supposed to be really good. And why provide drivers? I hope the interface to the sensors is really simple and fully documented.

Alternate OS?

[deckert_za]

Not that I religiously dislike Windows, but if you can run Linux on it, it puts a whole new spin on being able to remotely ssh to your robot and issue the "kill" command ;-)

--deckert

Re:Alternate OS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does have Linux, if you go to the White Box Robotics website, they have a version with Ubuntu. That's the "Player" software on their site. Since they're running mini-ITX motherboards, Linux should run OK. Not cheap, the MS version is ~ $8K, with the Linux version at ~$6.8K.
For my money, I'd spend $350 and get the Pleo, it does run Linux on an ARM CPU. Would be more fun to work with too! http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9421520726.html

Heathkit in name only

[Anonymous Coward]

The awesome thing about Heathkits was that it was just some components you soldered together. You could understand each piece of it, and then see how they get put together into something that actually worked. (I still use my Heathkit stereo receiver at home.) There was no magic black box. I've never seen a permanently broken Heathkit: if you can build it from scratch, you can fix it. Anything else electronic tends to just get thrown away, because there's no way for us mortals to know how to go about fixing it.

Now it's a PC running Windows XP. It's a blue PC on wheels. It doesn't even look like you get to assemble it. It's "Heathkit" in name only.

55 pounds?

[Animats]

That's heavy for what's essentially a laptop with wheels.

Apparently its main sensors are just little IR ranging devices. Those things are basically non-contact bumpers. Not too impressive. It really is a rehash of 1980s technology. I don't see much use for a 55 pound dumbbot. Robotics is way beyond that point.

This thing ought to have at least two cameras, stereo vision, and SLAM software. Wouldn't add that much to the cost, and they have the needed CPU power onboard. A pair of webcam chips mounted rigidly to the same frame, so that they stay aligned within a pixel, would make stereo vision work. You can buy stereo camera pairs for robotics, but they cost too much because they're made in tiny quantities. Made by a toy manufacturer, they'd be no more expensive than two standard webcams.

Wither Heathkit?

[Snorpus]

Last I heard of Heath(kit), they'd been purchased by Zenith. I think the name is still used on motion-sensor fixtures, sold as "Heath-Zenith", in places like Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.
I suspect the only connection to the Heathkit we love is the name... somebody probably bought the rights to use the name.

Now, if the instructions (yellow cover mandatory) include a 200-step procedure for aligning the RF and IF stages, using the S-meter as a VTVM and the BFO as a signal source, then we know we're getting somewhere.

Provided, of course, that the robot only comes in a two-tone green color scheme.

Heathcliff Reincarnates the Hero Robot

[Sergeant Pepper]

Did anybody else read this as "Heathcliff Reincarnates the Hero Robot"? I had imagined some bastard child of Wuthering Heights and Snow Crash...

Heathcliff: "Wait a minute, Cathy. Make up your mind. This Love thing--is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?" Cathy shrugs. "What's the difference?"

Or, alternatively:

Y.T.: My love for Hiro resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Juanita, I AM Hiro!

Re:reincarnation

[bhodikhan]

I live in the same town as Heathkit. At one point they were part of Zenith Data Systems. Later on they were spun off as their own company. Since then they have catered mostley to the technical education eTeaching type fare (Macromedia Director Training Curriculum). Given that they've lost all the people that made Heathkit great long ago I seriously wonder what would make them try to sell such a closed dead-end robot. While I'm always happy to see Heathkit alive and kicking this robot endeavor makes me wonder who's running the show? My guess is that they're listening to the marketing guys more than the techies that used to drive the products. It's too bad. Heathkit was really cool (about 30 years ago).

Depress yourself further...

[Ellis D. Tripp]

http://www.heathkit.com/

Re:Heathkit has lost touch with its core users

[Dachannien]

Heathkit was beloved of inveterate tinkers Maybe they're trying to appeal to invertebrate tinkers now.

Re:Alternative (pics)

[Tablizer]

Here some pics of Evolution robots:

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/0402/robo07.jpg

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/washtech/images/demo2002_robot_190w.jpg

With a claw:

http://www.xeni.net/images/boingboing/robot_butler.jpg