Much assembly required for new robot

Honda Motor Co.'s Asimo is sophisticated enough to walk, climb steps and talk. It's way too expensive for regular households, but is available for rental at $17,000 a day.

Manoi may be child's play compared to such robotics wizardry. But building it serves as a good educational tool for understanding how it works.

It also delivers the absolutely awesome experience of creating something that actually can learn and repeat moves once you program them once.

Manoi's brain, a microprocessor, is a tiny panel with needle-like parts sticking out of it. But the chip goes in the machine's stomach, not its head.

The motors are the robot's joints and muscles. The arms have two motors each — and lots and lots of screws.

When assembled, the legs and thighs connect to sit on flat, boot-like feet. The head is just a single motor that turns to the left and right.

Each motor has wiring spewing out at various lengths, depending on the joint's distance from the brain, so it's important to follow the manual carefully and put the right motor in the right place.

After the body parts are put together, the wiring must be connected, one by one, in the right order to the microprocessor, sticking them into the metal that protrudes like needles.

The robot, powered by a stack of rechargeable batteries, connects to a computer through a computer's USB port like many other gadgets.

Manoi's software works only on computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system, but it's fairly simple. You merely set the moves of each motor by dragging what looks like a bar-graph for each one.

First, though, you get the robot to stand, shaping the robot with your hands to keep its balance, with its knees slightly bent and its arms at its side. Then you make the robot "remember" this basic position by turning it on and clicking on an icon in your computer that looks like a camera.

I decided not to be too ambitious at first.

I dragged on the bar-graphs that control the arms to make the robot raise them as high as they would go. With a click, each motion is represented by a box on your computer screen.

Then to map out Manoi's movements, you draw lines connecting the boxes, using your mouse. The speed of moving from one position to another can also be set with a click.

More complex movements require hours of trial and error. But Kyosho has ready-to-use patterns as free downloads.

That's why my robot managed to walk, or rather stumbled, looking like a pathetic Pinocchio. It also waved and flailed its arms in a primitive dance conveniently devoid of footwork.

A more fine-tuned Manoi will perform fancier tricks, such as squatting on one leg, jumping, picking itself up from its back, even doing aerobics.

Kyosho officials were impressed that a reporter who was a total novice with a screwdriver completed the robot assembly. Two other journalists, they said, gave up after building the arms.

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