Robot Reviews

Meet Roboni-i, a highly-intelligent robot that fuses interactive, remote-controlled gameplay with advanced robotic technology.

Operated wirelessly using a handheld controller and featuring four processors and 16 sensors, Roboni-i can sense and respond to his environment, explore the room on its own, and even engage in games with other Roboni-i units. A great toy for young robotics enthusiasts, Roboni-i can also be linked to your computer, allowing to reprogram his behavior and upload customized games.

Opening up the Box:

       &nbs p;        Opening up the box, I was greeted with Roboni-I safely packaged in the box.  Opening up the box, it was snuggled in thin plastic which was cracked in one area, but it didn’t afflict any damage to any of the items.  One thing I noticed while reading the box was that it’s made in South Africa.  I haven’t had any products made there before.  The quality of the plastic pieces seems good.

Box Contents:

• Roboni-I Robot

• Mobile Controller

• 1 BaseStation

• Infrared Gun

• 1 Energy Port

• 1 SFX Hub

• 3 UniHubs (1, 2 and 3)

• 1 Electronic Ball (Pod)

• 2 Resource Cards (Energy and SFX)

• CD with Roboni-I Command Centre Software and 6 Action games

• 1 USB Cable

• 3 Game Reference Cards

• Getting Started Instructions

Owner’s Manual:

                The Owner’s Manual covers all aspects of the Robot, UniHubs,  BaseStation, and other items.  There are 26 areas which go over all of the aspects of the robot and accessories.  One thing that is not clear is how the trigger buttons work on the controller for the different games you can load onto the Controller/Robot.  It is covered in the Command Center how to set up the playing field and to access that particular game.

Features:

                Before you start playing any game, you have to set up the playing field with the different UniHubs, Basestation, SFX Hub, and Energy port roughly 3’ away from each other.  The BaseStation is the center of the playing field.  They have to be roughly 3’ apart due to the robot(s) need to see the BaseStation.  If you drive out of the view of it, the robot makes a sad tune.  You can “Play” with up to 3 other robots.  They communicate with each other, the BaseStation, and the remote via Zigbee technology.  The first robot turned on is set to “Host”, while the other robots will connect to that robot.  There are 7 games which you can download to the robot and remote to play with the robot.  Some of the games are multi-players, while others are a 1 player game.  You can also register online and play online with other people with your remote.  You have to hook up your Robot via USB, and turn on your remote to use it.

                A nice feature is that you can actually program your robot with different actions and interact with your environment with objects or the other robots depending on the action (Bump front bumper, ‘see’ an object or another robot, move forward/backward/rotate, etc).

Programming the Robot:

                Programming the robot is drag and drop onto the working area. If you are used to working with Lego Mindstorms programming, you will be very comfortable programming this robot.  You have different items you can drag and manipulate the different variables.  There is a learning curve in which one has to learn before they feel comfortable working with this type of program.  Granted, it’s ‘easy’ with the drag and drop feature but one has to get familiar with all of the different items one can use, and how to change the variables to what you want the robot to do.

BaseStation:

                The BaseStation takes 2 AA batteries, and the top is filled with 3 different colored lights and has sensors.  The BaseStation is the center of the playing field.

UniHubs:

                There are 3 Unihubs which has a number 1-3 and with a different color.  In different games, one has to roll over the UniHub which the robot will pick up on and “Store” it in the robot/controller.  Depending on the game, you might have to shoot the BaseStation, grab another color, get energy, or deposit the color(s) in the SFX Hub.  Each UniHub contains a separate RF strip in which the robot can read and forward onto the controller.

SFX Hub:

                The SFX hub is where your robot will deposit the different colors so you can achieve points and win the game.  The Hub contains an RF strip where the robot can read it and send that information to the controller.

Video with Roboni-i Running around:

Energy Port:

                This serves 2 purposes: holds the Electronic Ball or (Pod), and transfer energy from it to your robot (Your robot uses energy while playing games).  You drive over the Port and in a few seconds your robot will be full of power (60).  After that, it will eject itself from it and you can move along and play or you can drive over the actuator and release the Pod.  The Pod will drop and you might need to quickly swoop up and drive over it.  The Pod also has an RF strip which the robot recognizes.

Command Center:

                The Command Center is the Windows program where you can name your Robot, upload games, configure how your robot will act when certain events have happened, play online, and program your robot. I had an issue with running the program with my netbook.  My max resolution is 1024x600.  When I maximize the program and get into the programming area, I can’t change an item which is on the bottom of the screen.  I have tried to resize the window to see if I can access the buttons but every attempt was a failure.  I will be programming it from another computer to show you the differences.  I will be emailing them about this program ‘bug’.

Installing the software:

                Installing the software on Windows 7 Home Premium went very smooth.  Windows did complain that the driver wasn’t signed, but I didn’t have any issues at all.  I did come across a few people having issues installing it on Windows XP, and Vista in the forums.  The program does check for updates, which there was an update which went smoothly.

Remote Control:

                The remote control takes 4 AA batteries.  It has a card holder which you can change out for the different games you want to play.  The LCD screen is very easy to see in normal light. The remote control tells you the current game you’re playing, and the battery level of the remote as well as the robot which is very nice to have since it loves to feed off of the batteries.  It will tell you what you need to do next, like drive over a color, shoot the base station, fill your robot’s energy, or deposit a color.

Pro's:

Con's:

Overall:

Robonica’s Roboni-I Programmable robot is a robot where you can program it to interact with the environment, change the behavior by reprogramming it, have other Roboni-I Robots follow the leader, and play 1 or 2 player games.  The programming aspect is very easy if you have played with Lego Mindstorms NXT brick.  You can drag-and-drop different modules which will affect drive speed, light sensor, bump sensor, and others.  The only drawback is that there is a fixed amount of sensors that the robot has.  Lego on the other hand can accommodate new sensors in the future by just plugging that sensor in and updating the program.  If you are the only one on the block owning this robot, you will more than likely get bored and put it up after a while playing with it.  You might just play online with other people to compete and not really playing with it by yourself.  If you have a friend that has one, or purchase 2 of them, the interest will stay longer since there is interaction with another person trying to compete with each other.  For the price and the features of the robot is pretty good.  I think the online playing feature will help keep this robot alive.