
The forgotten 80s home robot trend - enkiv2
https://tedium.co/2018/05/24/80s-home-robot-history/
======
djrogers
FTA: \-- “Our robot had many features that still haven’t been duplicated
today,” Fowler recalled. “We had an autonomous robot that could self navigate,
plug itself in to recharge, speak, sing, play music, recite poetry, recognize
commands and a bunch of other features. We programmed it to act as an alarm
clock, security guard, entertainer and tutor for the kids. It was very
advanced.

But when people asked us ‘What can it do?’ and we would list its capabilities,
they would always scoff. \--

We see this cycle repeat over and over again in almost every area of tech, and
so rarely do we learn from it. What Mr. Fowler failed to grasp was that people
weren't interested in buying a robot that had 'features', they wanted one that
provided utility.

At the end of the day their lack of utility made these robots toys - very
expensive, klunky, difficult to use, and unreliable toys.

Heed me children - when building something, focus on utility over cool
features. Solve a problem, and make it easy to use and the world will beat a
path to your doorstep.

~~~
tootie
I had some very accurate voice recognition software on my Windows 3.1 Tandy in
1995 or so. I also played VR games around that same time. The tech has been
minimally viable for a very long time. It's the user experience that's evolved
and frankly it hasn't evolved all that much.

~~~
Eridrus
This is some revisionist history right here.

Speech recognition has gotten dramatically better since 1995. It now works
with cheap mics, without per-speaker training, across the room, in noisy
environments, with large vocabularies and low error rates.

The problem with this article is that all of this tech is not a binary yes/no
feature, but rather work with varying levels of success in various situations.

It also says ridiculous things like "Unlike today’s conversational interfaces,
the Gemini took voice commands in an english-like programming language called
VOCOL." as if that is a good thing, compared to these interfaces being usable
in ambiguous natural language.

~~~
tootie
I was using an early version of Dragon by Nuance which is still active. It
used a cheap commodity microphone and hardware that, while expensive at the
time, was maybe 10% as powerful as a typical modern phone.

And having built a public-space voice system very recently, I can tell you
that it's still really difficult to pull off and definitely requires specialty
AV equipment and professional installation.

The problem then as now is that if it's not 100% accurate, you still need to
be doing manual correction which is very time-consuming. And typing was never
really a broken system that needed help.

------
khedoros1
I was in kindergarten in 1990, and my school had robotics books describing
some of these home robots, but they were never very realistic about their
actual capabilities. Being a young child, my imagination ran wild.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View actually has a number of home
robots on display, which was cool because it was the first (and last?) time
that I could see them in person.

~~~
Isamu
>Being a young child, my imagination ran wild.

This is the source of much of our collective imagination about robots.

And all the dystopian movie plots about robots overthrowing humans and killing
them all. I think that is completely projection - somebody is thinking "well,
if I were a robot, I'd kill everybody." It really says a hell of a lot more
about humans than robots.

For robots to take over the world or kill all humans, first they'd have to
give a shit. They'd have to perceive themselves as oppressed or something. And
have some motivations, akin to emotions, driving the behavior. Good luck on
coding that up.

~~~
pvg
_somebody is thinking "well, if I were a robot, I'd kill everybody."_

Most of these, from the earliest, are various allegories about responses to
exploitation and oppression not people thinking how they’d want to kill
everybody if they were a robot.

~~~
krapp
IIRC, the word "Robot" itself comes from the Czech play "Rossum's Universal
Robots[0]" and translates to slave, so the metaphor of class struggle was
always there.

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R).

~~~
enkiv2
It translates to 'worker', & the play came out shortly before the russian
revolution, so it's clear that the subtext of the term in its original use is
not merely a criticism of slavery but also a marxist criticism of the
exploitation of the proletariat under industrial capitalism.

(Important to note that, just like in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep &
Blade Runner, the 'robots' in R.U.R. are not mechanical devices but instead
genetically engineered synthetic humans. That helps the metaphor a great deal:
rather than being a pure 'other' whose behavior might be seen as a design
error, it's simply a different breed or race of humans with different heredity
that makes them convenient for othering, along with some argument about
hereditary traits that supposedly make them more suited to hard labor.)

~~~
pvg
_It translates to 'worker'_

It's a made up word. If it translated to 'worker' he'd have just written
'worker' in Czech.

~~~
enkiv2
Let me rephrase:

In all slavic languages, 'robot' is the base of the verb 'to work'. So, by the
same means by which some people have decided to translate 'robot' as 'slave',
it would be more accurate to translate it as 'worker'.

~~~
pvg
Right, except for the part where that is 'more accurate' because it's not. Oh,
and the play came out after the Russian revolution.

------
robotbikes
I never forgot the promised robots. They're ingrained as part of my childhood,
a dream of mechanical assistants that were a hybrid of the 1950s futurism
combined with the promise of a digital tomorrow. Instead we have been sold
cheap spying devices that have more in common with the ubiquitous microphones
of 1984 sweetened with the droll dialogue of the talking wall screens of
Farenheit 451. Ohh well the future still lives in our dreams and those we
choose to build with sweat and grime.

------
ChuckMcM
It was an interesting time to be building robots. And most of them had all of
their functions running on the equivalent of an Arduino. (generally an 8080 or
Z80 though with more RAM and no FLASH). You can read through the archives of
comp.robotics.misc for some of the excitement of the time.

Generally, the inability to have end effectors (hands of some sort) that could
do things was a real killer. None of these robots could do anything with
vision, few had real localization, and about the best they could do was move
from where they were to approximately where you wanted them to be without
bumping into too many things or getting stuck.

------
nsxwolf
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAULIE

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncySiTOMAHc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncySiTOMAHc)

------
vkou
The real robots of the 80s, that did useful work, and liberated an entire
class of people from menial domestic labour were the dishwasher, the washing
machine, the dryer, and the vacuum cleaner. But, alas, that is not sexy.

Compared to them, these things, and Alexa are toys.

~~~
enkiv2
Those are also things that became widespread during the 50s.

~~~
vkou
Only in the middle-class parts of the United States.

In 1995, only 18% of UK households had dishwashers. Even today, only ~75% of
US households have them. Today, only ~60% of UK households have dryers.

European ownership rates of household appliances resemble those of the late
Soviet Union more then they do those of the United States.

~~~
enkiv2
And the machines mentioned in the article sold thousands of units at most.

The theme of the article is that the creators of these machines made a big bet
on the idea that novelty and imagination alone would carry expensive,
underpowered machines to market success, and that even when those machines
were actually technically impressive, those bets were wrong.

The HERO was able to stay on the market for so long only because Heath was
making their real money on electronics kits. The RB5X was able to stay on the
market for so long because the overhead was close to zero. Androbot & Arctec
folded almost immediately, because the TOPO was a $400 RC car and the Gemini
was a $9000 tech demo with no arms.

A business plan that depends upon upper middle class frivolity to the tune of
thousands of dollars per family is unlikely to succeed. Everybody in the
article learned that the hard way.

------
gugagore
If 80s era home robots are your thing, here's a bunch of pictures and some
information:
[http://www.theoldrobots.com/personal.html](http://www.theoldrobots.com/personal.html)

~~~
joshuakcockrell
Surprising how many of these look like they were taken from the set of Star
Wars.

This one looks like R2-D2 with giant Coca-Cola sticker slapped across the
front.
[http://www.theoldrobots.com/cobol.html](http://www.theoldrobots.com/cobol.html)

~~~
enkiv2
It's not too surprising. The first of these were produced in the immediate
aftermath of Star Wars' success, & the entire personal robot boom occurred
during the original theatrical releases of the trilogy. Plus, a trash can on
wheels is one of the easiest mobile robot designs to get working.

------
xellisx
Always wanted a HERO ever since seeing ads in the back of the Radio
Electronics magazines. Of course price was prohibitive.

~~~
52-6F-62
Just thought I'd comment to link this from the article in case anybody misses
it:

[http://www.rbrobotics.com/Products/RB5X.htm](http://www.rbrobotics.com/Products/RB5X.htm)

~~~
enkiv2
Author here, making a quick correction about the RB5X.

When I wrote the article, I believed it was still produced by the original
company. I later learned that while the same company produced the RB5X for
about 20 years after its initial release, eventually the name & the remaining
stock was sold off, twice.

They kept afloat despite only having produced a handful of bots because the
stock of parts was kept in somebody's garage & ever few years when an order
came it, the gang got back together to build one.

If you've got an interest in these things & aren't confident about your
ability to build one from scratch, the RB5X seems like a good choice: help
them clean out their garage. If you _are_ confident in your ability to build
one from scratch, I recommend downloading the code, designs, & instructions
for the Gemini from Mike Fowler's site -- the Gemini is more capable than even
newer robots on the market at a price comparable to what they originally asked
for, & the price of components can only have gone down since.

------
EvanAnderson
I remember HERO on an episode of Mr. Wizard:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_C0bRgAJw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_C0bRgAJw)

~~~
rhn_mk1
I remember HERO from my university robotics club, some 10 years ago. Punching
in hex codes for machine instructions was so fun, especially since that
encouraged us to drop the computers and code on paper.

Nevertheless, someone made an assembler, figured out the code upload interface
and future instructions were uploaded using a mini jack and a sound card.

------
Someone1234
Reminds me of the Rocky 4 Robot, here's an article about it (scroll passed the
oversized icons):

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/creed/rocky-iv-robot-
butler...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/creed/rocky-iv-robot-butler-
stallone/)

------
spookthesunset
> Alexa’s Interface is treated as revolutionary > ...it had a lot more in
> common with an Amazon Echo than a robot in an old sci-fi film

While yeah, these old robots could in theory do more than an echo watch some
of the videos of them in operation (eg:
[https://youtu.be/oibgyqdXfJM](https://youtu.be/oibgyqdXfJM)).

Just take the voice on that youtube video, while impressive for the 80's is no
comparison to Alexa's voice. It is very slow and has a thick robot accent.
Alexa has a much more dynamic, fluid voice that is much easier to understand.

And yeah, I'm sure some of these things could be commanded by voice, I imagine
that you have to be _extremely_ precise with what you say and how you say it.
I imagine the error rate is way higher than Alexa (which in my experience is
pretty high itself).

I dunno where I'm going with this comment, but the interface matters. It's
easy to claim "they were doing all this shit back in the 80's" and it might be
technically true, but how they were doing it didn't have nearly as much polish
as modern stuff. When you have a 4mhz processor and 64k of ram, there is only
so much polish you can add to an 80's robot. The echo dot has a quad core
processor and 4gb of ram -- not to mention wifi, bluetooth and gps
([https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/blogs/2017/amazon-echo-
dot-...](https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/blogs/2017/amazon-echo-dot-
teardown)). You can add a lot of polish to a hardware stack like that.

Of course, even with all that processing power, I'm still only about 50%
successful turning the lights on at home. We still have a long ways to go....

~~~
tomc1985
> The echo dot has a quad core processor and 4gb of ram

And yet it still farms most of its processing out to the cloud

------
agumonkey
oh, reminds me that the very first programming class per se we ever got as
kids was on one of these :

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bigtrack+programmable+rover&atb=v5...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bigtrack+programmable+rover&atb=v59-2__&iar=images&iax=images&ia=image)

basically real life LOGO. I say "per se" because LOGO trying to not feel like
programming, teacher didn't say the word IIRC.

~~~
hoffbrau99
My love for programming originated with Big Trak, LOGO on the Apple ][, and of
course the C64

~~~
jackhack
The BigTrak was my first exposure to programming, as well. I was so distressed
when my family moved and it was lost/discarded. I used to work out path
programs for it to drive from my bedroom, down the hall to my brother's room,
and back, ferrying baseball cards or comic books or such.

For those who aren't aware, BigTrak was an electronic toy from the late 1970s,
a treaded tank-like toy car with a membrane keyboard on top. The user could
program in a path as a series of steps (forward, forward, right turn, forward,
make sound, stop.) and I think it had a gripper claw on the front. (memory is
a fleeting thing).

A google search shows I was close to accurate (no claw, though):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak)

~~~
hoffbrau99
It had a trailer which could be commanded to dump the objects it was carrying

------
vanadium
Whither the Omnibots?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibot)

~~~
jonathankoren
As a kid I thought the whole Tomy line[0] was awesome. I lusted after an
Omnibot and Omnibot 2000, but never got one. (I did get a Verbot though.) My
imagination still makes me think they'd be awesome, even if I knew they were
mostly remote controlled with weak motors, butd damn, seeing a an actual demo
of them is heartbreaking.

[0]
[http://www.theoldrobots.com/tomybot.html](http://www.theoldrobots.com/tomybot.html)

------
DonHopkins
The Cardiff Walker poses to amuse the girls at the Turing Institute Robot
Olympics. (1990)

[https://i.imgur.com/Mi0mbWb.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Mi0mbWb.jpg)

He won Gold in the Biped Race!

CARDIFF BIPED. Uni. Wales, Cardiff, Wales. Paul Channon, Simon Hopkins & Prof
Pham

[http://www.galloimages.co.za/image/biped-robot-in-action-
at-...](http://www.galloimages.co.za/image/biped-robot-in-action-at-
robot/1005152/1)

>The UWCC Biped robot in action at the 1990 Robot Olympics in Glasgow. This
robot is a product of Cardiff University. It consists of a pair of life- size
aluminium legs. Pneumatic actuators at the joints enable this robot to walk
with a rolling gait. Both feet are equipped with strain guages to measure the
rolling motion, with a feedback mechanism to prevent the robot falling over.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Robot_Olympics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Robot_Olympics)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_Institute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_Institute)

------
strictnein
For kids of the 80s, the Sears catalog was one of the greatest things to
peruse. Here's an example of some of the less expensive "robots" that were
being offered up in 1986:

[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/81/89/ba/8189ba22bd7ee70e708b...](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/81/89/ba/8189ba22bd7ee70e708b9c2e36b8b6d9.jpg)

------
intrasight
I'll never forget the home robot trend. As a CMU frosh, I worked in the
"Household Robotics Lab" and we played around with some of those robots.
Nobody really knew what they were doing nor why. But we had a lot of fun and
had some cool toys to play with. The Raibert Hopper was in the lab next store.
That was a serious robot - and seriously loud.

------
beamatronic
Anyone remember Verbot, it was an inexpensive voice controlled robot

~~~
trimbo
How could I forget? I spent days trying to get it to work and never got it to
work right.

~~~
jonathankoren
It could be a very frustrating toy. It was like the future when it worked
though.

------
melling
Forgotten? It’s the first time I’m hearing about it.

I lived through the 1980’s. I pretty sure this trend never registered.

~~~
krapp
I was barely aware of it. I had (and still have, it doesn't work) an Armatron,
and read about some of these robots in books in my high school library and I
was fascinated by them. Not smart enough to actually _do_ anything with that
fascination, but still... robots.

There was one that had six legs and looked like a viral sheath that I thought
looked really cool, but I can't find a picture of for reference. I think it
actually appeared on a news program or something.

edit: found it![0]

[0][http://www.theoldrobots.com/odex.html](http://www.theoldrobots.com/odex.html)

~~~
enkiv2
As a nerdy kid, I was exposed to all this personal robot hype (particularly
marketing material from Nolan Bushnell's Androbot) via pop-science library
books -- all of them somehow staying in circulation 15-20 years after nearly
all the companies mentioned went out of business in '85-'86\. Looking for
information about the machines in those half-remembered books is what led me
to write the article.

I think it would be really easy to miss all of that if you weren't
specifically interested in robots growing up, or if you grew out of robot
books aimed at children before those books had gotten into the library system.
A lot of them were probably published after the machines (aside from the HERO
& RB5X) were no longer available, because the publishing pipeline is about 18
months & Androbot went from launch to bankruptcy in about two years.

------
perl4ever
I'm not sure if it was exactly a "home robot", but there were these
programmable toy tanks called "Big Trak" of which I had one in the 80s:

[https://bestofthe80s.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mb-
bigtrakg...](https://bestofthe80s.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mb-
bigtrakgrey.jpg)

My sister had an Omnibot:

[http://www.theoldrobots.com/omnibot2.html](http://www.theoldrobots.com/omnibot2.html)

I can't remember if either of us had one, but I also remember the Armatron:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armatron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armatron)

~~~
lscotte
Big Trak was great! I had one too. Great fun programming it to drive itself
around the living room.

------
kels
I still have my functional Omnibot that my Dad bought when I was a kid.

------
pmarreck
As an 80's teen I was pretty obsessed with getting an Omnibot 2000
([http://omnibot2k.com/omnibot/Omnibot_2000_Information.html](http://omnibot2k.com/omnibot/Omnibot_2000_Information.html)).

My parents failed to fork over the cash for that (but they did get me the very
first Mac, which blew up my 12 year old mind so hard that it probably began my
career in software dev, so... I think I won anyway)

------
heymijo
I recall watching a Mr. Rogers episode where he visits a robot factory and
being mesmerized.

Found the episode. The link has some pictures. The robots were very
R2D2-esque.

[http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/mrn/episodes/1513/index.h...](http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/mrn/episodes/1513/index.html)

------
weej
I have a lot of fond memories with the Radio Shack Robie Junior robot. As a
kid, this was a great introduction to robotics.

[https://rctoymemories.com/2014/04/25/tandy-radio-shack-
robie...](https://rctoymemories.com/2014/04/25/tandy-radio-shack-robie-
junior-1987/)

------
driverdan
Anyone have the documentation for VOCOL? I'm curious how it worked. Searching
didn't turn up anything.

~~~
enkiv2
The user's manual & technical manual have VOCOL documentation. I've only
skimmed it, though.

[http://www.robotu.com/Gemini_files/User_Manual.pdf](http://www.robotu.com/Gemini_files/User_Manual.pdf)
starting on page 55

[http://www.robotu.com/Gemini_files/Tech_Reference.pdf](http://www.robotu.com/Gemini_files/Tech_Reference.pdf)
starting on page 47

I suspect roms/VOCREM.BIN in the 'software' package is actually the compiled
VOCOL code, but I haven't disassembled it to find out yet.

------
basementcat
My first thought was the robot that came with the first Nintendos.

~~~
enkiv2
R.O.B., mentioned at the conclusion of the article.

------
hackbinary
What, no RadioShack Robbie the Robot?

