Roboquad


Referred to as "The first true robotic arthropod," Roboquad is one of the 5 robots that WowWee announced at CES in January 2007. It is a 4-legged robot that somewhat resembles a spider and a dog. Also designed by Mark Tilden, the Roboquad, like other WowWee robots, has multiple personalities, awareness of its surroundings, some autonomous behaviour and can be controlled via a remote.

Features

Like other WowWee robots, the Roboquad has multiple 'personalities' which are dubbed 'States'. Those states are State of Awareness, State of Aggression and State of Activity, and they can each be set to low, medium or high. In the Awareness 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 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, Roboquad's 5 different scanning sequences 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.