Sparky

Sparky is a mobile robot controlled by a base station (Mark Scheeff, 2000). In essence, a human operator at the base station uses a game controller to send commands, like emotional state and movements, to the robot. A computer (200 MHz Pentium CPU) on board the robot interprets the commands and drives the motors.

Audio and video signals acquired from a microphone and a camera at the robot end are transmitted back to the base station wirelessly and displayed via a monitor and speakers respectively. Sparky’s face points towards any face present and it can express 4 emotions. Also, it employs 10 DOF.