CES Robot Roundup, Part 1

The Innovations Plus exhibition at CES featured a variety of emerging companies: some a little offbeat (like the folks behind Skins), some mundane (I lost count of the number of flash memory companies), and some pleasantly geeky and/or freaky. Firmly in the last category were the various companies collected together in one section featuring robots -- all of which, I was pleased to note, are available now, though some only if you're in Japan or Korea. In any case, there was enough variety that I'll have to spread my report out over a few days.

The first group of tables I walked up to were there under the umbrella of JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization). Some of the companies they listed as booth exhibitors weren't there (including Kokoro Company and the folks behind Paro, which I mentioned a few months ago), but those that were were interesting enough.

ZMP's ¥108,800 ($895) Miuro, for instance, is more Star Wars utility droid that Battlestar Galactica Cylon -- it rolls around on its two wheels, using its sensors to build a map of its environment and find its way to different spots in the house. Why? To play your favorite music, of course. Miuro can either access your computer's music library over your wireless LAN or play directly from a docked iPod to keep you entertained wherever you go. Oh, and of course it can use those wheels to dance to the music.

Also from ZMP was the bipedal Nuvo ($7,000 to $10,000 depending on the model), whose claim to fame is that it's controlled by voice recognition, a remote, or from commands sent by a mobile phone. Nuvo can not only walk but dance while playing music, amusing the children and likely scaring the dog. With a design vaguely reminiscent of the robots in Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky, Nuvo can also act as your home security, marching around while you're gone and keeping an eye on things through the webcam mounted in its head.

The most fun, though, was Systec Akazawa's PLEN (about $2300), "the small but most intelligent robot" that "prefers your desktop as a den." The programmable PLEN has 18 joints, and you can build your own actions using its Motion Editor software and upload them via a USB cable or Bluetooth. PLEN is really meant for people to point and say, "Awww, isn't that cute," because it can already do things like roller skate, skateboard, and kick a soccer ball around. (Check the PLEN site for examples of the first two -- for the latter, you'll just have to trust me.)