Techie Tuesday: White Box Robotics

Yes, these are the droids I'm looking for... 

The folks over at Endgaget have an interview with Tom Burick, the CEO of White Box Robotics. Here's an excerpt:

What’s it cost?
The bare-bones platform is gonna come in right around $799. For that you get the differential drive system, you get the IO card that controls the motors and the sensors, you get the full chassis and the body panels. From there, you add the motherboard of your choice. You can add a laptop hard drive, a CD-ROM drive and CD burner, and cheap Webcams, and you have a fully functioning robot. We chose to do it that way because the PC and robotics enthusiasts really expressed the idea that maybe I don’t want a 20-gig drive, maybe I want a 120-gig drive, or half a gig of RAM instead of 128.

The DIY platform as an initial platform made a lot of sense because we can get it in the hands of enthusiasts and they can get it out however they want. It’s important to note that we designed the platform to let people cut, drill, paint — it’s a far larger blank canvas than a PC, especially for the mod crowd. It’s DIY, do-it-yourself. At all costs, I want to avoid the word “kit,” because it sounds like a toy or model and these are very serious, real robots.

Are there functionalities that all the DIY robots have in common?
On a basic level, you can still do a lot with the robot. Right out of the box, the robot can pretty effectively guard your house, with object recognition. Telepresence is a big one, too: connect the robot into your wireless network at home and you can access the robot while you’re away. You can check on the house, check on your parents, check on your child or dog. Did you leave the iron on? Send the robot into the room to find out. It has speech synthesis and speech recognition as well.

He goes on to describe some commercial applications that robots can now do, like security. Which brings me to my favorite quote:

And companies can recoup their costs fairly fast.
That’s exactly it. Robots don’t show up drunk, they never call in sick.

Well, I don't think they'll be able to outsource robot repair anytime in the near future. Now, if only all these community colleges would start teaching Mechanical Servant Maintenance to prepare us all for our next career move...

Anyhow, I think these are a modder's dream. Here is a description from White Box Robotics' product page:

These robots are powered by an industry standard VIA Mini-ITX mainboard. This mainboard along with other hardware (hard drives, CD-Burners, DVD drives, web cams, etc.) are then installed in the White Box Robotics 912 mobile platform. The end result is an amazingly high-tech, functional mobile robot!

Our platform, or "rig" as we call it, is based off of standard PC architecture. Similar to an industry standard PC case in construction, almost any off-the-shelf PC hardware can be used on the 912 platform with little or no modification. Any computer store in the world becomes your own personal robot parts bin! The great thing is that anyone who can operate and\or tinker together a PC can use or build one of these incredible machines! The finished robot runs Windows 98/ME/2000/XP as an operating system. For its robotic functions, such as motion or obstacle avoidance, the 912 uses Evolution Robotics Robot Control Center software.
Why buy or build your next PC when you can have one of these amazing robots? They can do ANYTHING a PC can do, plus patrol your house for intruders, run errands, and allow you to check on your house while away from home (telepresence) - you see what the robots sees via a remote internet connection, plus much, much more!

The 912 platform is primarily designed for PC based hardware. However, the platform is SO flexible, ANY hardware can be easily used to control the robot (BASIC Stamp, PC104, ISOPOD, etc.) The platform uses a system of easily removable trays to mount hardware. The 912 is truly an affordable, professionally manufactured mobile robotic platform!

For PC enthusiasts and traditional robot builders alike, the 912 was designed from the start to be cut, drilled, painted, accessorized, and modded!

For the less technically inclined, they plan to roll out some fully assembled models.