I wish that someone was doing a good autonomous robot dog kit in the style of K-9 or Goddard with decent obstacle avoidance and some human-interaction behaviors.
Give it a depth sensor (which doubles as looking like eyes!) and program it to respond to motion, or even BT signals to recognize it's human and it's friends.
And I don't want anything sphero sizes, you know? Give me something with some heft.
It doesn't have to be a terribly practical machine. It doesn't have to be the height of technology. I don't need it to actually walk.
Just give me something that I can interact with. That shows signs of autonomy. That can, with some coaxing, be taught some tricks (in response to voice commands?)
Give me a robot that makes me feel like robots are coming.
@ajr the aibo was reputed to be exactly this
It went for upwards of $1000
@LogicalDash I never owned one, but I had the opportunity to interact with a couple. (Disney world did an interactive display with them at EPCOT the year before they were released.)
Tech has gotten all Moore's law-y since then. We should be able to reproduce that machines functionality for far cheaper.
Also, that machine was needlessly complex. Who wants legs? give me wheels that can handle carpet. It won't be climbing stairs, either way.
And it's not like this is a new desire!
I have robot toys from the 50s. They wind up, and shuffle around the table.
They are cute! They are fun! They are not friends!
Dudes in the 40s built Life Size! Humanoid Android Toys and paraded them around.
But now we have the tech to make them, you know... not useful exactly? But companionable, at least.
And I haven't seen one that is actually autonomous.
(Well, not for less than $1000.)
@ajr reading your thread i'm still thinking robot vacuum cleaner. it takes care of your mess, more than some of your friends might do. and you can teach it tricks like double whirls around the kitchen table. or fetch. definitely try to make it listen to speech command. i could go on but what would inspire you?
@Leonore5506 I mean, I love the idea of a roomba with personality!
I just wish they had some personality! They are ugly and bland and entirely non-emotive.
If we could make them: look interesting, behave more organically, and emote, then I would be far more interested in roombas as a platform for friends.
@ajr Ever since watching home videos of peoples cats riding on robot vacuum cleaners, i feel that that's what's missing: the way a pet would move through your house and interact. And i'm guessing a dog (instead of a cat) would be more prone to listen to commands. But be it cat or dog, the robot will surely benefit from some added 'pet' personality.
@Leonore5506 Yep, personality is the thing that's missing.
My little BB8 toy has some personality, and some really basic and limited autonomy. It's also too small, doesn't have any real practical use, and can't charge itself.
well, um
my PLAN for the リネコマ is for it to have a basic personality in it, which would affect how it talks and behaves when not controlled or directly engaged
but I'm still in the physical design process -- I am planning a walker module and some more ambitious bits, but
in part, it's because I have always wanted a robot friend too, but also kids, so I'm also kinda trying to build a robot baby.
it'll be "interesting", no doubt. O_o like, therapy interesting, I suspect.
(and when I do have working model images, animated images, or pictures of physical prototypes, I'm planning to put pictures up on here, and eventually I'll release the code and designs anyway)
Like, when I was a kid, I had dozens of robot toys. Some of them were almost what I want now, but much dumber.
I had robot bugs with basic obstacle avoidance. Robot dogs that were supposed to charge themselves (they didn't.) an assortment of furbies and little yappy dogs, and all of them were 10 - 15 years too dumb to actually provide anything like a reasonable facsimile of companionship.
They were neat toys. They were not friends. I want a robot friend.
Where do I get it?