Jordan Correa is a developer in the Microsoft Robotics Group, which means he has to leave his dog Darwin home alone. So Correa did what any self-respecting roboticist would do: built his dog a robotic playmate. DarwinBot isn't autonomous, but Correa can control the robot using an Xbox controller, and interact with Darwin via Skype. DarwinBot even allows Correa to remotely play ball and distribute treats.
In the video below Correa describes the bot, and towards the end we get to see DarwinBot play with its namesake. Using the onboard slate PC, Skype, and a pan-and-tilt webcam, Correa can interact fairly naturally with Darwin. The bot also packs a Kinect camera system on top for obstacle avoidance and a downward facing webcam for ball retrieval. The whole thing is controlled over the Internet with an XBox 360 controller. The Parallax-powered platform can even dispense treats and autonomously retrieve the ball with a retractable arm.
While it may seem hard to believe that this rolling mess of wires and cameras could command a dog’s attention, or at least not terrify it, Darwin seems to play well with DarwinBot. He comes when called, responds to some basic commands, and plays fetch with the robot. Whether or not Darwin recognizes Correa is another matter altogether, however. It seems more likely to me that the pup thinks of DarwinBot as the weird thing that throws balls and drops food on the ground when no one else is around.
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