Palm Pilots Become Robots

P I T T S B U R G H, Jan. 29 -- It won't fetch the paper, but it doesn't bite the mailman either.

Robot makers have created kits that will convert the same Palm handheld computer that plans someone's day into a simple machine that can follow him or her around the room like a puppy.

Why? Mostly for fun.

"Don't underestimate toys — it was games that got the personal computer revolution going," said Matthew Mason, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Mason assigned the job of building the robot to Grigoriy Reshko, then a 16-year-old summer intern at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics

Institute, and shares credit for it with Reshko and robotics professor Illah Nourbakhsh. Acroname Inc. of Boulder, Colo., got a license to assemble the kits from mail-order parts, with the first hitting the market in November.

Two kits are available, selling for $259 and $299. The difference is in how much effort it takes to put together - the more expensive one requires only a screwdriver, while the other needs some some gluing and wiring.

Get Coffee! Play Tag!

Their availability comes as robots creep out of the realm of spooky science fiction into Joe Sixpack's world.

Machines pummel and body-slam each other in prime time on "Battlebots," second only to "South Park" in ratings on the Comedy Central cable channel. One top-selling Japanese toy is a robot dog, and Lego sells plastic robot kits.

The Palm handheld kit is "for those who we like to call the 'cube dwellers.' If you've ever been in an office that's full of cubicles, you know that everyone's got a toy," said Steve Richards, Acroname's founder.

The Palm itself, costing $169 to $400, is not included in the kit price.

Free software enables the three-wheeled robot to roam a room for hours, making turns whenever it nears a wall or furniture. It also can follow its master by being told to stay a certain distance from his or her foot.

Commands are delivered through the Palm's stylus, and sensors near each wheel measure the distance to the nearest obstacle. The device easily can be plucked from the robot frame for everyday use as a calendar, phone book or to send and receive e-mail.