There were only a handful of robotics companies present, but they worked hard to earn the attention of the gadget crazed hordes at CES this year. The biggest displays were from Wowee and iRobot, and there were several smaller booths.

Wowee has developed a broad family of robots, aimed at children, education, adult hobbyists, and hackers. They emphasize the uniqe personality of each of their products, and while there is certainly a family resemblance, each of them has its own behavior, look, and sound. According to a Wowee engineer, it is a long, iterative process to arrive at each of these personalities. While bits and pieces may be simulated during the design process (conversation and sound were cited in particular,) many things just cannot be fully appreciated until the automaton is in front of a person, evoking sometimes unexpected responses in its human counterparts. Aside from their continually evolving bipedal robots, Wowee showed a quadroped, reptile, panda, and Elvis robot.

iRobot, the manufacturer famous for its ubiquitous Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, unveiled a new product for students and hackers to build mobile robotic applications on an established platform. The system, called iRobot Create, accomodates all levels of developer with interfaces ranging from 10 preset demonstration modes to full C/C++ language programming. Pictured are two entries from an internal iRobot design competition. The robot on the left is guided by a hamster running in a ball, and the robot on the right pairs a robotic arm to the Create rolling stock.

Robotis from South Korea displayed Bioloid, a reconfigurable robotics kit consisting of modules built around RS-485 controlled digital servos. It’s aimed towards education and hobbyists.

Spyke was left alone to guard its booth without human accompaniment. But according to the accompanying literature, it’s made of Erector set, and WiFi compatible. Quite a handsome orphan.
Otherwise notable, there were multiple Asian companies offering Roomba-like robotic vacuums. One of them, the iclebo from Yujin robots, boasts IR sensors which stop the robot before it can dent furniture (vs iRobot’s mechanical bump switches, as explained by the Yujin folks) and a more powerful suction motor. They are still looking for a U.S. distributor. They will certainly face an uphill battle to win market share from the Roomba, but considering the unique sucess of this segment of the home robotics ecosystem, its hard to blame them for trying.