by Reuters
It's every house cleaner's dream and it's on sale now.
A domestic robot, or "homebot," to deal with those tiresome tasks such as vacuuming and clearing dishes is on sale by mail order for just under $800 in the United States, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.
"Cye" is produced by Pittsburgh-based Probotics.
"Resembling a dustpan with two cogged wheels, Cye is controlled from a PC via a wireless link," the magazine said.
Computer connection
A pod containing the transmitter plugs into a computer's serial port, it said.
Before Cye can do any work, it has to map out its environment. The owner uses the computer's mouse to guide it to key landmarks such as doorways and corners and then it explores the space to fill out its world.
Cye can learn about its environment by detecting resistance in its wheels. It keeps track of where it is by counting the number of turns of each wheel.
"When Cye has got its bearings, it will faithfully drag a vacuum cleaner across the floor or pull a trolley loaded with drinks and food," New Scientist said.
"When it has finished doing your bidding it discreetly trundles back to its pod and recharges its batteries -- taking your dirty dishes as it goes," it added.
Some problems remain
Cye's inventor, Henry Thorne, admits there are some problems to be ironed out, like stopping Cye from getting in a tangle with the vacuum cleaner's cord.
"We wanted to make Cye more like a servant where it does its work while staying out of your way," Thorne told New Scientist.
But Cye is not a silent, Jeeves-like figure. It goes about its business with a series of whistles and chirps like the robot character R2-D2 from Star Wars.
Probotics is working with the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to make Cye more autonomous and they are also working on a voice-activated version.
Reproduced from ZDNet.
