Pleo
Pleo is a toy robot that mimics the appearance and behavior of a baby Camarasaurus dinosaur. It was designed by the Ugobe company . Caleb Chung , one of the Furby's designers , is a co-founder of the company. After 3.5 years of development, delivery in the USA started on December 5, 2007 . In Germany, Pleo is distributed by Joker AG . After Ugobe went bankrupt, Jetta, the company that produces Pleo, secured the rights to it. Since July 2009 Pleo has been part of Innvo Labs Corporations, a subsidiary of Jetta.
Behavior
Pleo is able to walk on all fours, move his head and tail, close his eyelids, open and close his mouth, and make sounds. It simulates eating food, tracks movements and reacts to noises.
At the beginning, Pleo mimics the state of a newborn, then behaves like a child and finally like a teenager. In childhood, he first walks insecurely and then begins to interact with the environment. He shows emotions like a drooping head or a wagging tail. Pleo also saves his "life experience" and thus creates a unique character.
technology
Pleo consists of around 2,000 individual parts. He interacts with his outside world using 38 sensors, a stereo microphone and a digital camera. Several Pleos communicate with each other with an infrared interface. It recognizes food stuck in the mouth via an infrared light barrier. 14 servomotors are installed to move the individual body parts. He also has sensors on his feet to see if he is being lifted. Pleo is not able to stand up on its own after a fall.
software
Pleo is based on the Life OS software platform and was initially delivered with software that was not yet fully developed. This has since been improved and can be downloaded from the manufacturer's website. To do this, you connect the Pleo to a computer via the USB port or fill the used SD card with the data. Software editors are now also available. Together with the disclosure of the source code and a Pleo Development Kit , these can be used by end users to refine the personality.
programming
In the future it should be possible to run PAWN scripts on Pleo. The required SDK was announced for the end of 2008, but the release has been postponed again and again. A virtual machine for running PAWN scripts is already running on Pleo.
science
Due to the numerous technical possibilities that Pleo offers for a relatively low price, it is also used for various scientific projects. For example, the group for interdisciplinary psychology at the University of Bamberg and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence have carried out projects based on Pleo.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article on stern.de
- ↑ Interview with Head of Sales Martin Hitch
- ↑ My friend, the robot - GRIP working group researches human-machine interaction. Retrieved June 23, 2015 .
