Roboquad

Roboquad by WowWee Robotics
Retail Price: $89.99
Ages: 8+

I bought the Roboquad about two months ago or so. I was in the mood to get some kind of neat robotic device. Something that would be fun and actually work. I got him on clearance for about 50 bucks. If you don't know, the WowWee's robots have always been advertised as the main entertainment robots for average households costing under 200 bucks. I used to want the original Robosapien, but convinced myself to forget about it years ago. At that time it was a hundred dollars. They still sell him for only 50 bucks at Target nowadays though. Anyhow, looking through the selection of machines on WowWee's web site, I decided for the Roboquad. He's a four-legged crab-like robot with a cool head. I liked the novelty of his appearance. Roboquad didn't turn out to be very popular, but WowWee's machines seem to go that way. They end up getting discontinued. Robosapien is their most popular and last longing robot. I believe most of the other ones are built as mere companions to interact with him and have a limited shelf life. I think Roboquad ends up being that way too. He holds a lot more promise of what he should be able to do as an awesome robot pet, but come up short and limited.

WowWee's robots are a cross between remote control toys and automatic machines that can roam and pretend to figure out their environments. Sadly, Roboquad is more the first. He does have automatic settings to let him that roam around and explore. He does do a good job at trying to figure out his environment and avoid obvious road blocks if he can see them (like big boxes and walls). However, all he can really do is walk around, change directions, and avoid stuff. He works fine on the carpet surprisingly, but make sure he has fresh batteries. However, of course the commercials make him look far more self-aware and automatic than he truly is. The biggest problem is that his automatic mode is limited and short. He may only explore for a couple of minutes before stopping and he gives up if he gets stuck for too long.

Roboquad has 72 pre-programmed functions such as different movements, speeds, and automatic settings. Like most of WowWee's machines, he's programmable up to 40 different moves. Roboquad has different personalities which are reflected in his automatic mode. He acts differently at night and in dim light. He is a novelty toy really, but I still like him. You can spend a good 10 minutes enjoying his charm. Roboquad holds a lot of promise, but is limited. I look forward to seeing a Roboquad II that improves on his Artificial Intelligence and make him a more full feature pet. There's no announcements for a new one at this moment sadly. I would like to have a bot that would roam around the house, learn his environments, and have some games to him. A real 24/7 machine would be awesome. Sony's old AIBO dog was meant to be like that, but he costed 2,000 bucks back when. The future of home robots are still in an extreme early stage between serious robotic computers and cheap toys.

Roboquad is a cool novelty to own, but could be far more promising than he ends up being. I'm still happy I own him and it's still enjoyable to spend time with him every so often. I continue to enjoy his appearance even in sleep mode. It's enjoyable to watch him roam around or command him for a bit. I don't own any robots like him, so his charm continues to be special. I wouldn't recommend him to anyone unless he was pretty cheap and if you don't mind novelty items that don't provide a lot of entertainment value.

Check out the videos here: http://roboquadonline.com/watch.html