Heathkit Reincarnates the Hero Robot

DeviceGuru writes "Heathkit, which produced and sold mobile robots aimed at hobbyists and students back in the 1980s, is about to reenter the educational robot business. Heathkit's new HE-RObot incorporates an onboard computer running Windows XP Professional on a Core 2 Duo Processor. It stands 21 inches tall, weighs 55 pounds, and has a built-in 80 GB hard drive, IR sensors, bright LED headlights, and lots of space for custom project circuitry." As robots go, it also looks very much like certain models of SGI workstation. Now I'll need to update my 1980 Christmas wishlist -- it's probably lost between pages of Popular Mechanics.

linux!

[prichardson]

I hope the drivers for all the robot parts of this are available for linux. What good is a robot if it doesn't run linux?

In all seriousness, why would they go with Windows XP? That really doesn't make sense to me. Linux works better as a headless operating system, and would allow for more tinkering.

55 pounds?

[Animats]

That's heavy for what's essentially a laptop with wheels.

Apparently its main sensors are just little IR ranging devices. Those things are basically non-contact bumpers. Not too impressive. It really is a rehash of 1980s technology. I don't see much use for a 55 pound dumbbot. Robotics is way beyond that point.

This thing ought to have at least two cameras, stereo vision, and SLAM software. [wikipedia.org] Wouldn't add that much to the cost, and they have the needed CPU power onboard. A pair of webcam chips mounted rigidly to the same frame, so that they stay aligned within a pixel, would make stereo vision work. You can buy stereo camera pairs for robotics [ptgrey.com], but they cost too much because they're made in tiny quantities. Made by a toy manufacturer, they'd be no more expensive than two standard webcams.

Heathkit has lost touch with its core users

[Omnifarious]

The biggest evidence is that the robot does not run Linux. Heathkit was beloved of inveterate tinkers and people who play with technology. Such people may run Windows at home, but I suspect most of them would rather play with Linux. The core user base of Linux is made of those kinds of people. Heathkit as lost touch.

Wither Heathkit?

[Snorpus]

Last I heard of Heath(kit), they'd been purchased by Zenith. I think the name is still used on motion-sensor fixtures, sold as "Heath-Zenith", in places like Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.
I suspect the only connection to the Heathkit we love is the name... somebody probably bought the rights to use the name.

Now, if the instructions (yellow cover mandatory) include a 200-step procedure for aligning the RF and IF stages, using the S-meter as a VTVM and the BFO as a signal source, then we know we're getting somewhere.

Provided, of course, that the robot only comes in a two-tone green color scheme.

Re:reincarnation

[bhodikhan]

I live in the same town as Heathkit. At one point they were part of Zenith Data Systems. Later on they were spun off as their own company. Since then they have catered mostley to the technical education eTeaching type fare (Macromedia Director Training Curriculum). Given that they've lost all the people that made Heathkit great long ago I seriously wonder what would make them try to sell such a closed dead-end robot. While I'm always happy to see Heathkit alive and kicking this robot endeavor makes me wonder who's running the show? My guess is that they're listening to the marketing guys more than the techies that used to drive the products. It's too bad. Heathkit was really cool (about 30 years ago).

Linux won't improve a crappy design.

[Noodlenose]

While I'm a diehard Linux/*BSD fan myself, this machine wouldn't even be improved with a genuine OpenBSD install done by Theo de Raadt himself (apart from that it would probably swear really well). Look at the design: it looks like a watercooler on wheels. Where's the robotic arm?

Before committing a large amount of money to an overpriced Dell on wheels it really has to stand the 'get me a fecking bottle of beer from the fridge' test.

Re:linux!

[x_man]

This is a very sad imitation of the original Heathkit Hero robot. The original Hero had a programmable robotic arm. This robot looks more like the Hero Jr, the less expensive, less featured version of the Hero. I built a Hero Jr. in 1985 (worked all summer to save up the $650 I paid for it) and it was a more functional robot than what is listed here. My Hero Jr. had the IR bit but it also had a sound detector, sonar, and speech synthesis. I would expect something made twenty two years later to be a little bit better than Windows on Wheels. Where's the arm? Where' the AI? Where's the ability to dynamically explore and map out the environment?

Very disappointing.

Re:Heathkit in name only

[fotbr]

But the components all had their standard markings, and the kits provided actual schematics as well as the "this piece goes on the board at location A" instructions. If you wanted to learn as you went along, you could. If you didn't want to learn, you could get by with just blindly following the instructions.

I dabble in electronics as a hobby. I enjoy amateur radio, again, as a hobby. I do not have the knowledge to sit down and design a 1.5 KW CW & SSB HF amplifier starting from a blank sheet of paper. I CAN sit down with the old Heathkit & its instructions and figure out what the parts are doing enough to bring a dead kit back to life without resorting to the brute force method of blindly replacing components until it works.

Like most things in life, what you get out of your projects and hobbies is directly related to the amount of effort you put into them. If you put no effort into it, then a heathkit kit was probably pretty useless. But if you put effort into it, you could learn a lot from them.