When Y and I lived in Kent, Ohio and Atlanta, Georgia, I enjoyed having this guy around–a Robie Sr. remote controlled robot from Radio Shack (I mentioned him before in this post that features a video that I made of Honda’s Asimo robot).
It is a less advanced version of Tomy’s Hearoid and OOM models. Robie Sr. can be remote controlled by a handheld transmitter that doubles as a walkie-talkie so that you can speak through Robie Sr.’s built-in speaker. Also, movements can be recorded to a cassette tape that can be played back to repeat the movements on command or by an internal alarm clock. He can grip items in his left hand, and he includes a tray supported by both hands for carrying larger or awkward items. You can read more details about Robie Sr.’s functions and features in the owner’s manual available at TheOldRobots.com here.
When I was a kid, I wanted one of these robots badly! I imagined it was like having R2-D2 as a friendly companion. Omnibot 2000 was the most advanced consumer robot that I was aware of at that time. Robie Sr. was a close second to my childhood imagination. The Heathkit Hero was the most astromech-like robot on the market at the time, but it was lightyears beyond my affordability and technical skill.
I remember playing for hours with a friend’s Armatron–imagining being the robot brain controlling the rattling rumble of gears moving the waldo arm according to my joystick maneuvers.
Patience and saved searches on eBay eventually led me to find this Robie Sr. to experience what this little robot was capable of. I brought him to my classes and had him in my office at school. Some students thought Robie Sr. was cool, but he didn’t seem to fire their imagination like he did me years before.
My Robie Sr. now belongs to someone else. When we were downsizing before moving to Brooklyn, I had to let go of him and put him up on eBay. Hopefully, he is continuing to live his best robot life with his new family.
Robie Sr. comes with a tray that can be held by both hands.
Left view with arm rotated to the height needed to hold a tray.
Right view with arm rotated to the height needed to hold a tray.
Bottom view of Robie Sr. Its wheels are for locomotion and tank-like steering. The black front wheel (at the top of photo) provides support and rotates based on the motion of the grey wheels.
Robie Sr. is pictured here with his tray, AC battery charger, remote control, and owner’s manual.
This screw is used for adjusting the steering alignment.
The Robie Sr. Demo Tape has a preprogrammed set of instructions for the robot to perform. To use it, you slide the cassette Open lever on the cassette tape deck on Robie Sr.’s torso, this slides the cassette tape mechanism out, place the cassette inside, push the deck back into Robie Sr.’s torso, and then push the Play button.
To recharge Robie Sr.’s big ass battery, the robot needs to be plugged into the included AC charging adapter.
For comparison, Robie Sr. is taller than an Apple Power Macintosh 8500/120. Also, the robot is about 9 years older than this Power Mac model.
Finally, here is Robie Sr. in action! Y and I made this video to show at a friend’s overseas wedding that we were unable to attend. The audio is in Mandarin for the most part. The story is that Robie Sr. needs to deliver a special message. Our dearly departed cat Miao Miao takes the message from Robie and gives it to us, and we read the message to our friends.
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