Tandar robot pets for kids

Pushing technology further, a new toy is arriving to toy-hungry kids, The Tandar Robot presented at CES 2011. It responds to touch and is able to move several parts of its body. It even talks with other Tandars when others are in close range.

iRobot Roomba 780 - The new 700 series and the Scooba 230



$599 at iRobot store

 The new 700 series from iRobot is out and the 780 is their new flagship. Featuring an updated cleaning pattern, Dirt Detect Series 2 technology (which is basically an update of the old Dirt Detect feature that vacuums areas more dirty than other areas), a touchpad making it more futuristic, 50% more batterylife, a Full Bin indicator and 2 HEPA filters. Wether or not its cleaning pattern is better than the previous models is yet to be seen.

Also announced, Scooba 230

$299 at iRobot store

The Roombas updated floorwashing sibling, The Scooba 230 has become smaller, has more efficient cleaning and also updated pattern.

ARobot Mobile Robot

I just bumbed into the website http://www.arrickrobotics.com/arobot that offers a fully programmable robot for around 340$. The ARobot is a robot that is targeted for hobbyist and others who find interest in robot-building. It comes disassembled and you will need to have some skills in computerprogramming as well.


The website states these features:

• Rugged aluminum frame (no plastic or wood)
• Dual front whisker sensors
• Rear wheel steering servo motor
• Front wheel DC gear drive motor
• Optical wheel encoder for distance measurement
• On-board coprocessor handles all motor control
• Controllable Red and Green LED's
• Sound output transducer
• Two user defined push button switches
• 3 User-defined RC servo control ports
• Serial communications port
• Expansion connector
• Socket to accept a Basic Stamp II controller chip
• Dimensions: 10" x 10", 5" tall, 2-1/4 lbs
• Runs on 8 AA-cell batteries for 5 hours or more

An interesting piece of toy if you ask me for a not to high price.

Care-O-Bot 3

Price unknown

The closets thing you will get to having your own private butler. The Care-O-Bot, a development of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) in Stuttgart, was created as a prototype household servicerobot in 1999 and later updated in 2002 (Care-O-Bot 2). The newest, Care-O-bot 3, was finished in 2008. It is capable of moving safely among humans, grabbing and giving simple objects to people. Among features it has 2 cameras, a laserscanner, an environmental detector, a tablet to input commands.
This could indeed be a future milestone in house robots.  

The Swash Series

I know I might be taking the cleaning stuff to serious but this item is just a little bit to amazing to skip from my blog. The Swash series from the company Brondell is basically a replacement for your normal toilet seat. It comes in 3 models, model 100, 900 and 1000. The Swash 1000 features a "sprayer" that cleans you after finished business on the toilet with a pair of Dual wash wands. After that it heats and dries you up with a warm air dryer, almost eliminating the need for toilet paper. Really cool invention.

Litter Robot 2 - Automatically cleans your cats litter

Appr. 340$ on amazon.com

If you own a cat, this might have some interest. A machine that automatically removes your cats dirty work, litterally! Besides looking like a surveillance camera or perhaps a laser canon the concept of the device itself is kind of impressive. Cat goes in, do its thing, gets out, the machine makes a turn an empties the cats business. It all ends in a tray at the bottom.

Besides the need to empty the tray from time to time, the maintenance should be minimum (cant wait until they integrate it with your regular toilets pipes, making it completly self reliable.

Robot Lawn Mowers

From Robotic Vacuums to Floorwashers to Lawn Mowers. In recent time, the competition in Robot Lawn Mowers has grown a lot. The companies sees the potential in the fact that nobody really want to or have time to mowe their lawn. People wanna do what they wanna do, and not chores that can be avoided.
The main competition, the way I see it is from:

1550$ at the time of writing.

Friendly Robotics - the creators of the Robomow. A company that was originally started in 1995. The Robomow series are propably the most popular robot lawn mowers out their and their product line is big enough to interest most people. This particular model the RM400 has a charging bay, removing the need to bring the unit inside the house for charging.

1199$ at time of writing

Kyodo America Industries Co., Ltd - This company, established in 1996, offers a somewhat unique product called the "LawnBott LB1200 Spyder Robotic Cordless Electric Lawn Mower". Besides scarrying the hell out of cats and dogs its pretty advanced. With 6 sensors, 3 in the front and 3 in the back. It can detect wether or not it approaches living grass, if it nears dead grass, concrete, dirt or rocks it goes into another direction. It can run up to 5 hours on a charge and is weather proof. Looks like a though mean machine too!

2399$ at the time of writing

Husqvarna - The Husqvarna Group is the world's largest producer of outdoor power products including chainsaws, trimmers, lawn mowers and garden tractors. Their experience and expertice are also woth noting when it comes to Robotic Lawn Mowers. The model below is called Automower 220 AC. for 2399$ its nowhere near cheap, but it has features like, automatically finding its charging bay (like Robomow above) and a build quality that is close to outstanding. For the price however I think it only captures the interest of the few.