October 3, 2002

9:10 AM

Evolution Robotics has just released the ER1 kit, which allows laptop owners to turn their machine into a robot. Users can point-and-click to link pre-defined behaviours together in order to "train" the robot for specific tasks (such as fetching a beer from the fridge) and can share these tasks with other robot owners by posting them on the company's website
posted by sanitycheck (4 comments total)

They mention power being a concern - couldn't you just program it to plug in its own power supply if it's feeling tired? (Just mount the power supply so its wall plug is the same height as a wall socket, then teach it to drive itself into the socket. Seems simple enough...)
posted by wanderingmind at 9:24 AM on October 3, 2002

Nice setup, but I wish it had Macintosh drivers - I have an old iBook gathering dust that would look great on wheels. And my Windows laptop is a pentium, and lacks RAM.

I'm glad to see kits like this being sold, as it's another way for people to start working and playing with robots, even if it's just a hobby kit.
posted by jazon at 10:00 AM on October 3, 2002

Neat. Almost enough to get me interested in an old PC Laptop. If I had several hundred in disposable income, this might be just the thing to rid myself of it.
posted by aladfar at 10:32 AM on October 3, 2002

I love my AIBO!

And , Sony even has a development kit out for these dawgs now!
posted by Mutant at 10:52 AM on October 3, 2002