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Mark Tilden likes to brag that he commands the world's largest private robot army. Don't be alarmed, though--these robots don't fight. They prefer
to dance and burp.
Tilden, a robotics physicist at WowWee toys, is no Dr. Moreau or Dr. Evil, but he loves the image--and has been called a mad scientist more than once. His creation is the wildly popular Robosapien humanoid robot toy. At a constantly humming 3-acre factory nestled deep within southern China's Guangdong province, workers assemble 5000 of Tilden's 14-inch robots every day. WowWee sold 2 million of the black-and-white creatures this year.
Tilden's boast aside, there's no denying that a robotics reformation is under way. After years of false starts and overpriced, overhyped flops, we're finally seeing robots you might actually want to buy. Robosapien has a repertoire of 67 moves, including throwing a ball and dancing, and is completely programmable. Total cost: $99.
"He's not a devolved human," Tilden insists. "He's an evolved robot. That burps." The burps are just a little "guy humor" that Tilden programmed. An active community of Robosapien hackers goes even further, sharing modification tips online.
Jamie Samans, a 34-year-old consultant for high-end home theater installations in the Seattle area, posts photos of improvements he's made to his own Robosapien. He's outfitted it with a Webcam and given it infrared capabilities so that when he's out, he can control the robot remotely through his PC. "My dogs absolutely hate it," he says.
From dancing to dog-watching, robots are learning tricks unimaginable just five years ago. Ask anyone involved in robotics to describe the industry today, and you hear comparisons to the PC industry in the late 1970s and to the beginning of modern aviation.
The possibilities for intelligent automatons reach beyond toys or the desire to simplify housework--an aspiration that already sells plenty of IRobot Roomba vacuum cleaners. Epson just introduced a tiny flying robot with helicopter-like rotors; a spokesperson says that possible applications include flying them around inside mines to survey the scene.
And due to recent reductions in the price of processors, sensor technology, GPS gear, and other robotics essentials, companies aren't the only ones creating compelling robots. Robot hobbyists are building machines that rival those from academic research labs.
