Roboscooper tidies up your room, whacks objects
WowWee's Roboscooper is a snarky little home robot that can autonomously pick up junk on your floor and cart it away. "One step closer to a cleaner world," says the Wall-E-style droid.
What could be better than robots that promote laziness? Robosapien maker WowWee is introducing a household robot that can tidy up after you, autonomously locating and picking up socks and other objects on the floor and carting them away.
Roboscooper works in two modes--autonomous and remote-controlled. With four infrared sensors, the robot can avoid obstacles and detect objects on the floor that are up to a foot away.
It can grab lightweight stuff (around 1 ounce) with its large hands and then swivel to drop them in its cargo bay. If an object is too heavy or stuck, it will ask for help. No word yet on whether it would balk at scooping up dog poop.
To dump its load, Roboscooper vibrates, shaking the cargo out of its bay. It adds comments like "One step closer to a cleaner world," as well as various sound effects. It emits beeps when backing up and skid sounds when stopping.
The 2-pound ABS plastic droid is 13 inches long and rolls on six wheels, so it can negotiate uneven surfaces. It runs on six AA batteries and three AAA batteries.
Hammacher Schlemmer starts shipping the toy at the end of August for $69.95 apiece.
Ominously, WowWee adds that "after a long day working, Roboscooper loves to whack things with his arms." So if you have nightmares about toys coming to life and rebelling, caveat emptor.
(Via Robots Rule)