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our goals:
The goal of the Toy Robots Initiative is to commercialize robotics technologies in the education, toy and art markets. In achieving this goal, we have six subgoals:
- Excite and inspire public interest in robotics and in science and engineering.
- Educate users in robotics, engineering and the natural sciences using robots as a tool.
- Discover elegant, non-traditional solutions to robotics problems by working within the cost constraints of the mass market.
- Utilize commercial sources of funding for research and development in robotics.
- Provide a challenging and rewarding work environment for robot engineers.
- Exploit high-volume manufacturing in the commercial sector to mitigate the cost of robotics development in the laboratory.
- Enhance the reputation of The Robotics Institute.
This year's strategy for the Toy Robot Initiative is to identify potential robot products, develop and license those products, then obtain commercial funding for the initiative. To date, four of our projects have been licensed by companies. In the case of Insect Telepresence, the licensee is already marketing a robot to museums. The second licensee is currently testing a new interactive toy based on technology resulting from our second project. In the case of CMUcam, we already have licensees in the US as well as France and Germany. The BowGo has also been licensed for retail production and sales.
our approach:
Our approach to developing each robot product is to define the robot's role, then develop a working system by leveraging off-the-shelf robotics technologies as much as possible. In this way, prototyping time can be minimized, and reliability is maximized. The first project undertaken, Insect Telepresence, is a good example of this. Off-the-shelf miniature camera technology and hobby robotics servo controllers are employed to are create a product that places humans right in the center of a colony of Madagascan giant hissing roaches.
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This site maintained by Illah R. Nourbakhsh. Page was last updated at 12:00 PM EST on Wednesday, March 31, 1999.