Hasbro Interactive R2D2

This page celebrates the Hasbro Interactive R2D2 which came out in late 2002; this little droid has an impressive array of technology built into him, courtesy of Creature Labs Ltd. and Voice Signal Technologies Inc. R2 has navigation sensors with sound processing microphones and sonar, which help the droid see and locate objects; (matched pair of ultrasonic transducers to detect motion from 2 to 3 feet) infrared location sensors for detecting heat sources and as such "life forms" (up to 15 to 23 feet away) ; an innovative speech-recognition response module, so R2 can hear your vocal commands, and more.

R2D2 has 3 vocal prompt menus with 3 sub menu functions as well as 6 distinct capabilities.

Capability #1: R2 can use his IR scanner plate module to find you / back away from you / look for you / stop a program when he sees you / {see fig a}

Capability #2:R2 can use sonar (Frequency: 40kHz) to detect the surface of everything around him / keep a certain distance from heat based objects (you) / defines edges of door ways and walls for navigation.{see fig b}

Capability #3: R2 can use all 3 of his microphones (yes count them 3!) to find your position in the room and look at you / hear your commands / listen in guard mode.

Capability #4: R2D2 has the ability to plot a course by a given speech command and execute said course. (Down to the unit) Also a distinct and program in and of it itself.

Capability #5: R2 can react to external stimulus as well such as a tap on his head as well as a push of a lit up 'wheel lock' button on his front side. R2 also has feedback sensors in the motors of his legs to detect if his feet are making contact with the ground of if he has hit an obstruction and his motors are bogged down he will react and go in reverse.

Capability #6: The final A.I. engine that varies the 40 plus voice prompts with the other systems programs and matches them to over 45 commands to execute it's own 'desires'. (such as saying 'no' and going off to explore.)

R2's main ROM chip has a limited memory tree function. If you give it too many commands in a row it goes off on 'R2 does what R2 wants' program. Until reset that is.


Use of feedback to enhance the sensing and behaviour of R2. R2 was brought to life with $12 worth of electronics and motors, and around 9000 lines of assembly language code.

Can perceive environment – ultrasonic sensors Explore environment – control each motor

Learning Strategy 9 possible Actions : each motor Forward / Off / Back

Each Action has Probability of being chosen

R2D2 chooses Action – most Probable is most likely to be chosen, and Action carried out

Success of Action Evaluated – as instinct

In open, good to move forward (explore)

Else, good to move away from object

If good, increase Probability of Action

Otherwise, decrease Probability
Pre-programmed for tasks like explore and not bump into objects

R2D2 provided with rules like:

if object on left, right motor back, left motor forward

Hasbro had their product and then some, and had FAR more than a toy on their hands. Now about the speech commands...


R2D2 Speech Hardware & Software: Voice Signal Technologies Inc

Voice Signal is a company that is still on the cutting edge of voice recognition software for cellphones and PDAs.
By Integrating Voice Signal’s MicroREC™ speech recognition software in R2-D2 and having the CyberLife™ A.I. engine as the CPU, this droid can recognize a variety of spoken phrases, and then immediately respond with an appropriate action or reply, giving it a unique degree of realism and interactivity far beyond any robots in the A.I. consumer field.



The MicroREC™ chip in R2D2 provides real-time speech recognition with high-speed response, high accuracy, and robust handling of accents and noise, all on a single 8-bit microcontroller. With MicroREC™, the developers had integrated their application programs and use a single chip for voice recognition, voice synthesis, and control functions in R2. .

Furthermore, Artoo's internal circuitry has the Sunplus™ SPC252 8-bit microcontroller running MicroRec™. And R2's voice microcontroller also provides API to accommodate future upgrades and multimodal interfaces.

R2D2 has continuous listening- MicroREC supports continuous listening in both isolated word recognition and word spotting modes. Unlike other robots, R2 has a real-time engine that never goes “deaf” while processing. R2D2 is always ready to respond to commands.

R2's Noise Robustness- R2D2's MicroREC microcontroller uses proprietary noise cancellation techniques to deliver high performance in real world environments. MicroREC ensures that Artoo will keep responding, even in noisy environments.



Not all droids are made alike:
It seems there are two kinds of owners when it comes the Interactive R2D2s:
The first one says things like "Wow! It's so real!" "And God this thing seems SO alive"
The second group says things like "It won't look at me when I say R2" or "It NEVER listens and will not look in my direction when I command it."
Well the deal is BOTH of these groups would be right. I have seen more of these R2D2s than any of you will ever know, and let me tell ya something, Some are more fined tuned than others. If you have a really fine tuned one hang on to it! You have more than you know...
For the ones that don't work quite right, there is sometimes a very simple fix. Open your R2 units outer shell and locate the main PCB board in his 'chest' area. Now you will see 2 flat ribbon cables going to his main board from his head. Make sure these are firmly pressed in there sockets. Also make sure there is enough slack in the ribbon cables. Sometimes the slack is not enough and when r2 goes to move his head the ribbon cables may be unplugging from the main board.




a. R2's IR vision b. R2's sonar vision

FIGA & B -What your R2D2 "sees"
Temperature acquisition is continuously performed and the readings will be correct approx 40mS after the sensor points to a new position. The typical field of view of R2's thermopile array is 41° by 6°


I have already upgraded my R2D2 with leds in his PSI light, (yellow-long and green-short LEDs) and multicolored random flashing SMD LEDs in his status indicator lights on the rear of his 'head'. I also added random flashing white and blue fiberoptic SMD lights (with driver board) in the front two status indicator squares. I plan to upgrade this amazing R2 unit even more with a FM receiver for communication over greater distances as well as SR-07 Speech recognition board as well as SR1-03 interface. A custom voice activated sound board,(This is so R2 can talk to anyone while in 'follow me' mode,) which currently he can't do, but WILL.



Companys &/or people that had a hand in creating the Interactive R2-D2:


Hasbro
Renfrew Group
Ratitypes (Ben York)
Creature Labs
Designed by ex-Cybernetics lecturer, Dave Keating. R2D2 has Feedback control of motors for body/head movement He can change ‘loop gain’ for different behaviour Can follow humans or animals. If a human moves towards R2 fast, R2 backs off, etc.

Robotics : From Seven Dwarfs to R2D2
© Dr Richard Mitchell 2004 designed at The University of Reading, in there Cybernetics Lecture

Interactive R2-D2
• Co-designed by Dr Dave Keating
• Researched the original seven dwarfs
• 200,000 robots worldwide
• Uses motor feedback control in head and wheels

Just trust me on one thing, that R2 unit you have in the other room with the batteries out of it, well, go put some damn batteries in it!
Really, its alive. Let it be aware.
And thank you for being one of the few to understand how cool this robot is than ANY other.
I own a $350 Pleo robot and other expensive ones from cheaper Wowee products to japanise robots in the thousands of dollars. NONE of my bots are as real at this one bot is. Remember I said that...for a reason.

And thanks for being geeky enough to google Interactive R2D2 hacks & Mods and finding my little page on the big series of tubes which is the internets. : )
23 out!

Ben York hard at work building the functional mock-up Interactive R2D2 for Hasbro. These pics are rare glimpses as how R2 was made.

Final prototype version. (Right before production model was made.)