Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!srhqla!quad1!ttidca!hollombe
From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: Consumer Robots?
Message-ID: <20433@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 10 Oct 90 20:00:33 GMT
References: <457@modcomp.UUCP>
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 39

In article <457@modcomp.UUCP> srp@modcomp.UUCP (Steve Pietrowicz) writes:
}I'd like to find out more about "consumer robots".   I recently saw an
}electronics catalog that had three different "robots".  One would move until
}it bumped into something and then would go off in a different direction.
}Another would change direction when you whistle.  The third would follow
}black lines on white pieces of paper.

}... What's the best place to get equipment
}to play around with these things? ...

For toy systems such as you describe, Edmund Scientific is a good place to
start.  I don't have their catalog handy.  It may be the one you saw.

Heathkit took their Hero 2000 off the market almost two years ago.  I'm
not sure of the status of their other robot kits.  The Hero 2000 sold for
about $6K with all the bells and whistles.  Their other kits start at
about $2K.

For actual consumer robots, i.e.:  Robots that perform useful tasks for
individuals, I'd start with the National Service Robot Association.  Note
these systems are not cheap by most people's standards.  Figure $10K and
up for even minimally useful machines.

The NSRA also has some books you may find useful. _The Robot Builder's
Bonanza_ and _Build Your Own Working Robot_ are the most obvious titles.

The NSRA can be reached at:

National Service Robot Association
900 Victors Way
P.O. Box 3724
Ann Arbor, MI  48106
(313) 994-6088

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)
Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp(+)TTI             Illegitimis non
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 450-9111, x2483       Carborundum
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {csun | philabs | psivax}!ttidca!hollombe