Cye Personal Robot

"Cye is a practical and inexpensive robot that's easy and fun to work with," said Henry Thorne, CEO of Probotics and robot guru. "Anyone who enjoys remote control devices will be thrilled with Cye's unbelievably nimble and intelligent navigation. PC lovers will find Cye an incredibly exciting peripheral that they can operate using basic point-and-click skills."

He added, "The Cye personal robot is ideal for robot hobbyists, who will think up all kinds of uses for Cye and exploit its design that allows them to easily add hardware and create new features of their own. Because of Cye's open software architecture, developers and programmers will be able to write their own cyeware."

With its PC based interface, users can Drag-N-Drive Cye on the screen and map out its environment. Cye can easily move around a home or office and learn how to navigate a new room in minutes. At a speed of three feet per second, Cye quickly moves around any room, pulling the optional wagon or vacuum attachment. Unlike other robots, Cye can follow scheduling instructions. By point-and-clicking on menu options written in plain English, users can schedule when and where they'd like Cye to go, and then Cye will automatically move there. For example, users can schedule Cye to go to the dining room at 7:00 p.m. and carry the dishes to the kitchen; vacuum the office at 10:35 a.m.; and distribute mail at 11:00 a.m.

Cye can be set up and working in just 15 minutes. To get started, users just plug the home base in, drop the robot on it, plug the radio pod in, connect it to their PC, and load the Map-N-Zap software from the CD. Cye can then be driven around by dragging its icon on the PC monitor.