Hubot is 44-inch tall, 110 pound battery-operated personal robot and when programmed, Hubot will remember how to get around the house without bumping into walls. Hubot includes a complete mobile work station, an Entertainment package and robotic functions. The entertainment package included a voice synthesizer with a 1200-word vocabulary, a 12” black and white television, and AM/FM stereo cassette player, an Atari 2600 video game set and a digital clock that displayed time and temperature.
Inside is a complete proprietary SysCon computer with B&W monitor, Detachable keyboard and optional printer which is used to do computing task and control the robotic functions. There was an optional voice command module that included a microphone to command Hubot verbally. Hubot could be preprogrammed to follow a programmed path or driven with a joystick. Once taught a path, Hubot could be command to follow it again with the touch of a button.
Hubotics, Inc. was a small start-up company formed in Carlsbad (San Diego North County area), California in 1984. The company came together to design and build a personal home robot, which was named Hubot (a contraction of Human and Robot). The idea for Hubot came from Mike Forino. He enrolled the services of Dan English for the computer hardware and software development, and Glen Keith for the industrial design, mechanical design, and support graphics. Hubot was first shown at the January 1984 Winter Consumer Electronics show.
Comments from Glen Keith, Industrial Designer mechanical designer, and support graphics designer:
“We started designing and prototyping from our homes at first. A real garage shop start-up! I built several mockups from foam core to explore the ergonomics of keyboard height, CRT viewing, etc. We also explored mechanical designs for the motors and drive wheels. Dan was working on the computer design from scratch and would come down occasionally to review with Mike and me. The prototypes evolved and ideas explored until I was ready to build a full-size working model.
“I made the first full-size working model of the body from 1/8” sheet styrene, cut and glued together. For the head, which was contoured, I carved a block of Styrofoam (urethane foam? I don’t remember) and then covered it with fiberglass. Then I chipped away the foam to make a hollow shape that we could put the TV into. The foam/fiberglass head was made in my backyard with a lot of foam dust everywhere. I had a large drawing board in the bedroom and generally converted our home to my workshop. Thank goodness my wife was supportive of this adventure!
“About this time we moved into a 1000 square foot unit in Carlsbad where we could all work together. It was one big room with a couple of small offices up front. Dan was a country and western music fan and liked to play his music all day long. It drove me nuts after a while!
“Since Hubot was fully mobile and housed a computer and TV, the body had to be very strong, yet inexpensive to make. Like most start-up companies, low cost manufacturing drove many design decisions. I chose to have the body made in one piece out of roto molded polyethylene plastic (the stuff water tanks and trash cans are made of). It formed a structural exoskeleton that held all the other components. It had a nice surface finish with integral color so scratches would not show and it was practically indestructible.
“To prevent Hubot from driving into an object, we used a sonic transducer (like was used on Polaroid cameras to determine depth of field). This was placed in a rotating collar so Hubot could scan the immediate path in front of him and even scan the entire room. I made the prototype collar out of sheet styrene also but it needed to have gear teeth all around about a 10” diameter “neck” of Hubot. I ground the teeth into the plastic with a Dremel tool. It took about half a day and made a very loud whining noise like a dentist’s drill. The sound echoed throughout the building and I got to drive everyone else crazy!”
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