Consumer Robotics: Hacking Towards the Future of ElectroMechanical Companionship
By: Jayson Staton
Target has become one of my favorite places. Just the other night, my wife and I were walking around looking for nothing in particular, when I was drawn to the clearance toys section. At the top of one of the aisles, almost out of my reach, was a little robotic dog that I had seen before, but ignored due to the outrageous price. Fortunately for you, our dear readers, the price of this robodog had dropped considerably and I was uncontrollably compelled to buy him.
The dog in question is called i-Cybie, co-developed by SilverLit Electronics and Tiger, and capable of some pretty spectacular wireless activities. Roughly the size of a small cat, i-Cybie is a plastic, battery-powered robotic dog capable of responding to IrDA commands from an included remote control. With 16 on-board motors, sound and light sensors, expansion card slot, different moods, and the ability to wander aimlessly around your house just like a real dog, sort of, i-Cybie is one of the latest, but definitely not the last consumer robotic device to be put on the market.
Many of you may be familiar with one of Tiger’s more popular interactive toy, Furby, or one of the countless others including Poo-Chi, Meow-Chi, and Shelby. I have probably owned 3 Furbies in my life, and they have all ended up as chew toys for my real dog within a few minutes of listening to their annoying ‘Furbish’ chatter. But the fact remains, consumer robotics are becoming increasingly more popular, intelligent, and affordable. With prices ranging from $5 to $25,000 USD, there is an electronic companion in any wireless developer’s price range.
Better . . . stronger . . . faster
One of the greatest features of i-Cybie, as well as other consumer robotics, is the ability to ‘hack’ into their OS by either software or hardware manipulation. The former and easier software approach can be performed easily with the OmniRemote SDK available for PalmOS devices with IR ports.
Using the SDK, C compilers have the ability to setup their own macros to control all of i-Cybie’s built in functions. You can even use OmniRemote as is to capture the IR signal used by i-Cybie without having to develop anything.
Alternatively, it is possible to develop functions in C to replace the preprogrammed ROM routines. While it is possible to achieve more performance from your i-Cybie with this method, you must be able to disassemble your robodog and solder some new components to the motherboard.
Detailed instructions for upgrading your i-Cybie can be found at the AiboHack site.
More Info
While I have just scratched the surface of reprogramming your robotic toys, there are many resources available for aspiring electrical designers:
Yes, I realize how silly this article must be to some of you, but every once in awhile we need to take a break from our serious workloads and do something a little fun. Go out and pickup one of these robopets.
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