PC-BOT Concept & Philosophy

Inspired by world-class design and fueled by advanced engineering, the 914 PC-BOT gives enthusiasts, educators and business partners alike the opportunity to create exciting, functional, mobile robots from off-the-shelf computer parts…

This is the first, patented robot design to employ standard PC parts... It does everything a PC does, houses the same plug-and-play hardware as a PC does, runs the same operating systems that a PC runs – but - it's mobile. In short it's a PC that has read-to-me, speak-to-me, move-with-me functionality that houses enough horsepower out-of-the-box to access and process the world’s legacy data – and put it in the hands (literally) of a human being. It moves, talks, sees, hears, senses and can physically react and respond to the environment it is placed in.

The PC-BOT can be easily configured to perform a myriad of useful and entertaining functions. All this within a stunning exterior design that has a universal ability to turn cold technology into a friendly, personal experience.

Want to know more?

This visually stunning, award winning robot is designed to fit digital life, bringing data and process to the point of human contact.

Built out of industry standard PC parts, literally thousands of PC parts are available off the shelf and will plug and play.

The 914 can be purchased in pieces for specific research projects or arriving at your doorstep fully tooled with industry standard operating systems (Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista (under testing) and/or Linux).

It is it’s own host computer – or client – or server – in fact, it’s a full internet hub with on-board wireless and telecommunications capability – familiar, supportable, maintainable, extendable.

What will it do?

The 914 PC-BOT does everything you would expect a robot to do - moves, avoids, transmits and receives - voice, video, data and text - by remote control or autonomously – but additionally the 914 is intended to put scalable data and processing power into a complex digital world that involves human beings.

It is an intelligent machine for teachers, researchers, applications and systems developers trying to do complex things at the point of human contact.

The PC-BOT today is delivered to you as an industry standard open platform ready for development in any environment you feel comfortable in. The simple answer is “just about anything you want it to do”, but here’s what you can expect your PC-BOT to do right out of the box.

After a fairly simple setup, the 914 PC-BOT is ready to navigate. This can be accomplished manually through the White Box Robotics interface (mouse or keyboard) or by joystick (either attached or wireless). It can also move about autonomously exploring, avoiding obstacles and stairs in the process – this is called “on patrol”.

While taking advantage of this mobility, you can also view the world through the eyes (webcam) of your robot. This remote mobile video telepresence capability is accessible through Windows Media via any local or remote PC or shared with your friends through your favorite instant messenger. You can also turn the driving lights on or off remotely depending on lighting conditions. Now you can check on your home, office or cottage...anywhere, anytime.

The next out of box experience comes from the fact that this very attractive robot is also a fully functional PC running Windows. In addition to sensible productivity applications, it doesn’t take much to turn the 914 into a very cool mobile entertainment platform.

All of this good fun is just the beginning … the 9-Series PC-BOT is also a novel application development environment for robotics application's developers set on developing the next wave of serious applications. There’s almost no end to what you can build with a little or a lot of tech savvy. Our application development environments allow you to write custom algorithms for a wide range of behaviors, such as speech recognition, navigation, and artifical intelligence.. We will also be developing on an ongoing basis new Windows Services that can be integrated into the recently announced Microsoft Robotics Studio (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics for the latest developments on this exciting initiative). We will also continue to build on our support for Linux Player Stage.

The dream is just beginning ...