Robot: Segway Toy
(using Segway's balancing technology)
Segway gets into toy-robot arena
The nice thing about WowWee Toy's scary RoboRaptor is that it's slow. Like most toy robots that walk, it can barely outrun a snail, but the new PEA (Personality Evolved Android) Bot uses Segway self-balancing technology and can move along at a few miles per hour.
The bot is about 18 inches high, and it's the first non-Segway product to use Segway technology. Unlike the full-size Segway, with the PEA Bot, you can dial in varying levels of imbalance, to give the toy a more animated, or drunken, look. There's also a flip-down cup-holder on the bot, so you can use it to deliver a drink to a friend across the room. It is necessary to turn up the stability first.
Like WowWee's RoboSapien, the PEA Bot can run either in remote control mode or in programmed semiautonomous mode. It will avoid walls and obstacles and can pick itself up if it falls; however, it has no "cliff" or "edge" sensors, so it will drive itself right off a table or a flight of stairs.
It is estimated that the new bot will sell for about $200 when it ships later in 2006.