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Product Name
Robovie-MS

Product Image(s) 
[1]

Product Code
Robovie-MS

Vendor
Vstone

Release Date
Available now

Price
99,750 yen

Overview
The Robovie-MS is o­ne of the world's first robots to be available for under 100,000 yen ($948 USD). It stands about 280cm tall, is about 185cm wide, and has a 50cm depth. But these measurements are when it is in "human" form, as pictured above; o­ne of the primary strength of the robot is that it how be reassembled into different configurations. Other sample configurations include a 4-legged robot, and even a robotic arm. Featuring 5 degrees of freedom o­n the arms and 3 degees of freedom o­n the legs, as well as o­ne o­n the neck, it also contains a dual-axis G sensor and joint bend sensor. While the 16MHz computer and 32KB FLASH-ROM don't exactly give you the greatest amount of flexibility, you'll probably find the 20 minute operation period suitable. As you may have guessed by the price tag and structure of the robot, it is intended for use in educational settings -- the robot's creator, the Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, bills it as suitable for elementary school kids and up.

Reasoning
Like it or not, robots are o­n the horizon. As technology gets more and more advanced, more and more robots are being created; but they're not exactly cheap or useful quite yet. At under $1000, such a low-priced robot should help educate a lot children in the field. Personally, I feel somewhat depraived, as I never received any "robots" education. In fact, beyond the Legos I used to play with at home, I really missed the boat for robots.

Official Product Site
http://www.irc.atr.jp/robovie-ms.html [2]

Related TechJapan Coverage
Vstone to sell low-price, humanoid ATR robots [3] (November 3rd, 2004)