Serious fun with wobbling friend

By PAUL BRISLEN

Mark Tilden is an angry man. Years ago, decades even, he was promised a future glistening with technology.

"We were promised moon bases, rocket backpacks and robots doing our laundry."

Tilden, a former Nasa robotics engineer, realised that if he wanted to see robots welcomed into people's homes he would have to build them himself - and make them friendly enough for customers to be happy to buy them.

So he stopped working for Nasa and began working on his own design for a toy robot.

"NASA's great - they'll give you $1 million to build one robot," he said. "The toy industry is different - they'll give you $1 and expect you to build a million robots." That change of emphasis suited Tilden and led to the production of Robosapien, a 30cm-tall robot that's fun and at the same time a serious robot.

"It doesn't do anything useful like taking out the trash, although it's quite good at scaring cats, but it is a great introduction to robotics," said Tilden.

"You could teach a course in robotics using the Robosapien."

He said most domestic robots were not designed to be part of people's homes.

"You get these stylish, well-designed homes with a kind of industrial appliance sitting in the corner. People just aren't comfortable with them."

The Robosapien is very friendly, in an international, non-communicative kind of way. With no obvious branding, and no language skills to speak of, it belches and whistles, chatters away and bumbles along.

But the Robosapien isn't just a friendly face. It's designed to be robust enough to walk off a coffee table without any fear of damage.

"The Nasa guys are funny about that," said Tilden. "They talk to me at robotics events and say, 'What can yours do that mine can't?' and so I walk it off the table, pick it up and it's still working.

"Then I say 'your turn' and they refuse, whining about 'mine costs a million bucks'."

But it's the robot's locomotion that's really interesting. Tilden designed the Robosapien by drawing triangles.

"If you look at most robots in TV or even real life, they move forwards, backwards, left and right," he said. "It's all straight lines.

"The Robosapien is built on triangles, so it's much more mobile and consequently more stable."

That means the robot can lean over from side to side, and even walk on uneven surfaces without falling over.

Tilden said it walked in a manner similar to people - in effect, it fell forward and caught itself with the next step.

The robot's oversized feet and rolling gait allow it to navigate across different surfaces without too much difficulty.

As it makes the transition from glass table top to newspaper, for example, it pauses for a moment and shuffles to regain control before setting off.

Tilden designed the Robosapien to be as easy to use as possible. It's no more complicated than a TV remote. It also doesn't need a laptop or PC to run it.

"I got sick of those toys that you buy and take home only to find a note on the side of the box saying 'needs Windows 98 or later' or whatever," said Tilden.

He also wanted the robot to teach the owner if they wanted it to.

"You can just play with it like it's a toy but you can also take it apart to see what makes it tick."

A screwdriver is all that's needed to undo the casing and from there the owner will find all the wires and motors clearly labelled.

"You can download the schematics off the website and learn about robotics or add on your own things or whatever you want."

Tilden is travelling the world marketing the Robosapien and has sold tens of thousands in Europe.

He was surprised to find that most sales were to teenage girls.

"They seem to like the design."

Although this generation of robots certainly won't take over the world, Tilden hopes they will encourage owners to dabble in robotics and get used to their presence.

The second generation will be slightly bigger and slightly more advanced.

And by the fourth or fifth generation "hopefully I'll be able to sit back while they do it all for me".

* Robosapien, $180 including GST, Available from Dick Smith, Toy Warehouse and others