RoboRaptor 2005
Further Review on mechanics and operations
Roboraptor in Package, Notice the use of green hue instead of blue like other Wowee robots.
Roboraptor Purched on his box
Using five motors, touch sensors (on its chin, back, and tail, and in its mouth), infrared (on its head and snout) and stereo audio sensors (in the head), Roboraptor can, whether you set it in "Roam" or control its locomotion, move about, avoid obstacles, and even inspect and react to its environment. For a toy, this level of interaction and environmental capability doesn't come cheap: Roboraptor sells for around $120. But as a low-end robot, it's priced right.
WowWee's first robotic toy success, Roboraptor relies on a remote to take commands from its master.There are navigation buttons on one side and body-movement controls on the other. The latter let you move Roboraptor's tail and head, put it in guard mode, or make it "bite" with its mouth and head. A shift button on the front of the remote gives you a second level of control, putting the raptor into different "moods," including Cautious, Playful, and Hunting. There are subtle differences among these modes, sometimes too subtle. We couldn't always tell if the robot was being playful or aggressive. In all modes, however, Roboraptor is loud. Its roars, snuffles, eating sounds, and screeches were loud enough to bring people scrambling to a small office where we were testing. We wish it had a silent operation mode.
Using the navigation buttons on the remote let us direct the Roboraptor across the room at a slow walk. Pressing the forward button twice made it move faster. Three pushes and it moved into a surprisingly quick walk, though it would be overly generous to call it a run. Part of the reason the robot can't truly run or turn all that well is that, while many of its body parts, including its neck, tail, arms, and hips, are articulated, its feet are fixed (there's a joint between the foot and leg, but it barely moves). The hip joints allow the back–and-forth leg motion necessary for decent walking, but turning, as it did for the Robosapien, requires the robot to rock from side to side. This is not a major issue, but it detracts a bit from Roboraptor's otherwise lifelike capabilities.
Those capabilities are pretty strong. Touching the chin sensor when the raptor's in Playful mode causes it to make a slow, almost purring, sound (though it's rougher and louder than a purr) and push its head against your hand. Roboraptor's mouth sensor lets it play tug-of-war. We did have to shove the T-shirt into its mouth (the robot barely opens its mouth on its own), but once the shirt was in there—pressing up against the sensor, which is nestled in the roof of the raptor's mouth—the robot engaged in a spirited struggle to gain control of it. The only issue we encountered was that the 3-pound robot has a tendency to tip over on its head.
Roboraptor is not a cuddly robot toy. It is, after all, a dinosaur. It doesn't stand upright; it's horizontal from the tip of its tail to the end of its nose. Picking up the long and somewhat unwieldy bot can be difficult. You almost wish it had a handle.
CPU
WowWee representatives wouldn't tell us anything about the robot's CPU, but we can tell you that it responds remarkably fast to remote-controlled and external stimuli. Virtually any motion in front of it, or an obstacle, causes a quick jerk of the head, a sniff, and, if necessary, evasive action, such as walking around the object. The remote also includes an infrared guidance system and a green light (so you can see where you're pointing). Roboraptor will follow the beam when you shine it in front of it on the floor or wall (WowWee recommends one foot away, but we had some success pointing the beam almost two feet away from Roboraptor's head). The moment we turned on the light and it hit a surface, the robot's head jerked in that direction, and it immediately began following the light. Its sonic sensors, which are smartly located where its internal ears might be, produce similar reactions. When we snapped our fingers beside its head, the robot cocked it in the direction of the sound.
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