PleoBot.com - Pleo The Dinosaur

It looks like Ugobe might have some trouble marketing it’s Pleo robot in Japan. Apparently “Pleo” in Japan is a car made by Subaru.

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[Via WIRED]

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Here’s the best Pleo related headline I’ve seen so far:
Furby creator gives birth to robotic dinosaur

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[Via Flickr]

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Here’s a shot of Pleo with his skin taken off. It looks a lot like the construction of the Furby.

[Via Flickr]
If you look closely at his neck, you can see the wires that go on the outside that enable the life-like motion. Also, the copper pads are capacitive touch sensors.

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Via GoRobotics.net - Apparently robot toys are gonna be really hot this Christmas season. This Associated Press story has more info. They say that 75% of new toys this year will have a computer chip inside (Pleo will have 8!). Other robotic offerings include, a life-size miniature robotic pony, a robot chimp, LEGO Mindstorms […]

Pleo without paint. Could this be a mockup?

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Here’s an interesting article for Rafe Needleman about Ugobe’s strategy and how the key to life-like robots is, “suspension of disbelief.” He writes,
The trick to making a robot, Ugobe CEO Bob Christopher tells me, is that you have to make it lifelike enough to engender a “suspension of disbelief” in its user, so that […]

You can now view Ugobe’s presentation of Pleo at the DEMO 2006 website. You can actually see Pleo “wake up” for the first time and take his first steps. He runs a servo calibration routine that Caleb Chung calls “stretching.” Pleo is very emotive and displays playfulness.

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Here’s a link to the official Ugobe press release about Pleo.
“UGOBE’s unique and patented robotic motion platform enables Pleo to move in a fluid, lifelike
way, while behaving completely autonomously. Equipped with nearly 40 sensors, including
infrared and stereophonic sound, Pleo requires no remote control and is free to interact with his
owner and environment.”
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