Hands On: WowWee’s Tri-Bot
October 13th, 2008
I wish I could say that I’ve never met a bot I didn’t like, but I’ve actually met several I don’t like. Thankfully Tri-Bot is one awesome robot, with a ton of nice features packed into his compact form. You’ve all seen him in various videos and pictures, but I have to say, this bot is twice as awesome in person. He’s a wise-cracking and highly energetic bot, which might make him seem like he would be annoying, but trust me, his personality will win you over as soon as you take him out of the box. Read on for the full experience.
The remote takes 3 AAA batteries and Tri-bot takes 8 AA batteries. The minute you turn this bot on, he starts his wise-cracking and joking, energetically running around, sensing obstacles and commenting on various things. (He cracked me up when he told me that I really need to vacuum. Then I was like Hey wtf) In fact, I’ve been playing with this little guy quite happily for several days and surprisingly, he still has new things to say, which is pretty amazing.
He’s about 15″ tall and a lot more intelligent a robot then you might think and is designed to mimic human facial expressions with movable eyebrows, glowing LED eyes, pop out “ears” and a mouth that will convey its current mood. WowWee has really come a long way in involving the user on that level. You really find yourself genuinely interacting.
Tri-Bot features a three-wheeled base which allows it to move around on flat surfaces. Which is another thing you really can’t appreciate until you see it in person. This thing moves efficiently and effectively. And I mean moves! When Tri-Bot freaks out, in say alarm mode for instance, he has some nice speed.
In Demo mode Tri-Bot will introduce himself and tell you how great it feels to be powered on, followed by some small talk, then he’ll explain some of his basic functions and what he can do, while showing off his skills.(Like showing off his pop-up headlight, sensors and movement skills.
In game mode you can play any of three driving based games with Tri-Bot. Minefield, Pattern and Maze.
In Guard mode you can set him to guard an area so that when someone approaches Tri-Bot will sense it and set off an alarm, alerting you that someone is trespassing. I set him up for guard mode and did my best to super-stealthily sneak by him, but he’s damn good. I was only able to sneak by him one time and only because I climbed over some furniture. He freaks out and would definitely scare your animals and intruders.
The Alarm mode is pretty cool too. Just set him on Alarm duty and he will let you know when a given amount of time has passed.
The remote sports all the typical buttons that you need and even has a tilt sensor so you can control him more naturally. It’s all pretty easy to use. He’ll even tell you if he falls over, but I haven’t face-planted him yet.
Put Tri-Bot in program mode and you can program him to do just about any routine you can think of. In Roaming mode, he’ll explore completely on his own, avoiding obstacles and walking around like he owns the place. There’s also a Home mode that you can use so Tri-Bot can find you.
The final verdict is that Tri-Bot is literally a ton of fun. To date, he’s probably my favorite robot ever. There’s really not much to dislike. The only thing I could wish for was a USB port so you can program him even more. I know, other bots have that ability and Tri-Bot is awesome without it, but I dig Tri-Bot’s personality so much I want to explore that option.
I hate to sound like a nerd in love, but they really delivered a quality robot here. Just the design of the Bot alone is really nice. Retailing for $99, you really can’t go wrong.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
[...] are said to be “well developed and play off each other perfectly.” Like I said about Tri-Bot, the reviewers noted that the omnidirectional wheels were “incredible,” the remote [...]