THIS MONTH:
Geekings
From
France
This month, we have the privilege
of introducing an intrepid robotic
envoy all the way from France,
courtesy of POB Technology. We were
lucky enough to receive the POB
Golden Kit, which includes a fully
assembled robot, a software CD with
an electronic manual, and a serial
cable for programming. The robot is
equipped with tank treads, a camera,
and a claw for manipulating objects.
The easily accessible circuit board
boasts plenty of open terminals
for the addition of sensors and
mechanisms, and the multicultural
bot is truly an accomplished linguist
that is fluent in a wide variety of
languages for programming.
Cameras, hacker ports, and a
creative software platform make the
POB robot sound like an ambitious
project, and it most certainly is. The
POB bot is meant to appeal to a
broad audience of tinkerers including
everyone from university researchers
to hobbyists. The POB bot even
attempts to target that most elusive
and sought after of demographics —
kids. While many kits may find their
appeal to the younger crowd hindered
by too much complexity, too much
simplicity, or any other unfavorable
medium in between, we think the
biggest obstacle to getting kids interested in robotics (and as an extension,
science and engineering in general),
is the stiff competition presented by
other, more favored leisure time activities like video games and television.
The POB robot has a few tricks up its
sleeve to surmount that very obstacle.
Here’s Looking at
You, Kid
The POB bot presents immediate
entertainment by offering some
preprogrammed behaviors. As soon as the bot
is turned on, the LCD
screen comes to life and
users are able to choose
from one of three
options: Look, Follow,
and Test. A joystick and
push button allow the
user to make selections
on the screen, and we
think such a setup will
appeal to the elusive
younger demographic
that has gained a
degree of technical literacy by playing countless
video games, but often go without a
more productive pursuit to fill up their
free time. The Look option will quite
literally let the user see the world
through the eyes of the POB robot,
and while that world is pixilated and
monochrome, it is also undeniably
cool. Half of the LCD screen shows
the output from the camera and the
other instructs the user to press Enter
to return to the menu. One might be
hesitant to do that, however, because
there is something enigmatically
fascinating about seeing the world
distilled down to a few pixels, and
POB PWM PORTS.
SERVO 05.2008 73
