Roboquad is one of the 5 new robots

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

 that WowWee announced at CES

Consumer Electronics Show

The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...

 in January 2007. It is a 4-legged robot that somewhat resembles a spider

Spider

Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...

 and a dog

Dog

The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

. Also designed by Mark Tilden

Mark Tilden

Mark W. Tilden is perhaps best known for his invention of BEAM robotics and the WowWee Robosapien humanoid robot. He is a robotics physicist who produces complex robotic movements from simple analog logic circuits, often with discrete electronic components, and usually without a...

, the Roboquad, like other WowWee robots, has multiple personalities, awareness of its surroundings, some autonomous behaviour and can be controlled via a remote

Remote control

A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...

.

Features

• Five Scanning Sequences

1. Smart Scan: examines its surroundings and reacts to changes
2. Scan Left and Right: turns and faces any nearby object
3. Approach Nearest Object: moves towards the closest object it detects
4. Escape Walk: moves towards the largest open space it finds
5. Flinch Response: reacts to rapidly approaching objects
   • Five Usage Modes:
6. Direct Control: user controlled movement
7. Autonomous Mode: self-directed interaction with its environment
8. Guard Mode: similar to Guard Mode on other WowWee bots, Roboquad reacts to noises and movement with sound effects.
9. Sleep: falls asleep after 5 minutes and powers down after 24 hours.
10. Demo: features a dance routine
    • Edge Detection
    • Remote Control: for controlling movement, programming, and adjusting personalities
    • 72 Preprogrammed functions
    • 40 programmable
      Computer program
      A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
      
       moves
    • Demo Mode

Hardware

• 4x leg motors
  Electric motor
  An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...
  
  
• 4x leg motor position sensors
• 2x head and neck motors (its head can swivel around completely)
• 2x lens-focused, face-mounted deep Infrared
  Infrared
  Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
  
   vision (13 ft range)
• 1x microphone
  Microphone
  A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
  
  
• 1x light sensor
• 1x Infrared
  Infrared
  Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
  
   remote control
  Remote control
  A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...
  
  

Personalities

Like other WowWee robots, the Roboquad has multiple 'personalities' which are dubbed 'States'. Those states are State of Awareness, State of Aggression

Aggression

In psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Ferguson and Beaver defined aggressive behavior as "Behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of...

 and State of Activity, and they can each be set to low, medium or high. In the Awareness

Awareness

Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. More broadly, it is the state or quality of being aware of...

 state, it spends more time scanning its surroundings. When its Aggression state is increased, its behaviour simulates anger and aggression and finally the higher the Activity state, the further and faster the Roboquad will wander.

With its light, sound and IR sensors, Roboquad is pre-programmed to simulate reactions to external stimuli

Stimulus (physiology)

In physiology, a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli is called sensitivity....

 and acts accordingly.

Movement and Autonomy

The Roboquad's legs all swivel around and so it is able to walk forward, backwards and sideways at about the same rate and mobility. Its head is also able to swivel around completely, so it is able to scan its surroundings without turning its body.

In addition to its adjustable personalities (States), Roboquad's 5 different scanning sequences (described above in Features) are modulated according to how the personalities are tuned.

The documentation states that Roboquad's infrared sensors are sensitive enough to allow it to navigate doorways.

Availability

See the . However, Roboquad has been seen at the following locations, which may not be part of the list:

• UK
• Ireland
  Ireland
  Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
  
  
• IT
  Information technology
  Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
  
  
• US in at least one store (Toys R Us)
• Switzerland
  Switzerland
  Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
  
   (seen in Geneva
  Geneva
  Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
  
  )
• Australia
  Australia
  Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
  
  
• Romania
  Romania
  Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
  
   in at least one store
• AS
  Asperger syndrome
  Asperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...
  
   in at least one store
• Latvia
  Latvia
  Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
  
  in at least one store chain (Elkor)

External links

• Roboquad Home on RoboCommunity - The official WowWee Robotics user community