Robopet

The Robopet is a robotic dog produced by WowWee that is based on the biomorphic work of Mark W. Tilden. The Robopet has IR, audio and tilt sensors and is able to wander around autonomously detecting and reacting to objects and sounds. It also performs random 'tricks' such as howling, begging, rolling over and playing dead.

Hardware and Software

 * The Robopet has 5 equal custom gearboxes using 2 and 3 bit position switches
 * The robot runs from a single processor board in its back and is controlled by autonomous routines and IR (Infrared) signals from a thirteen button remote control
 * The CPU is a custom-designed 16bit RISC processor with 512k of built in sound and 12k of program space and 128 bytes of onboard RAM
 * Battery life is 4 hours with Alkaline batteries.

Batteries
Robopet requires 4 "AAA" batteries and the remote takes 3 "AAA" batteries.

Features and Tricks
When left by itself for a few seconds, the Robopet enters its autonomous mode and starts exploring the room, responding to I/R reflected signals from objects and the floor.

The tricks that Robopet performs are: roll over, play dead, howl, paw, relief, jump, "whoops", rock and scratch. These can be activated by the user via the remote control and are randomly performed by the Robopet when in its autonomous mode.

The Robopet also features an edge-detection mode which has to be either on or off via the power switch, so it can be placed on a table without falling off, although it is not 100% successful.

The 2 axis tilt internal sensor detects whether the robot has fallen over, and it can automatically right itself.

Colors and Special Editions
Robopet is available in white, pink, blue, purple, green and black. A special "Signature Series" Sharper Image edition was released, sporting a metallic red color.

In 2007, after the release of new robots, Robopet robots were packaged with Mini Robopet.

Programming
Like other WowWee products, the Robopet can be programmed. It has 9 remote-control accessible tricks and 5 direction functions (forward, backward, left, right, and stop) which can be sequentially placed into a 20 step program.

It also features "Good Dog" and "Bad Dog" buttons which either encourages or discourages it from performing recent "tricks".

Other Information
The Robopet can interact with the Robosapien V2 and RS Media robots.