engineering

Roboquad

Roboquad is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Roboquad rather than just read about it. In short: Referred to as "The first true robotic arthropod," Roboquad is one of the 5 robots that WowWee announced at CES in January 2007. It is a 4-legged robot that somewhat resembles a spider and a dog.

Key takeaways

Roboquad belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Roboquad to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Roboquad from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Referred to as "The first true robotic arthropod," Roboquad is one of the 5 robots that WowWee announced at CES in January 2007. It is a 4-legged robot that somewhat resembles a spider and a dog. Also designed by Mark Tilden, the Roboquad, like other WowWee robots, has multiple personalities, awareness of its surroundings, some autonomous behaviour and can be controlled via a remote.

Features Five Scanning Sequences Smart Scan: examines its surroundings and reacts to changes Scan Left and Right: turns and faces any nearby object Approach Nearest Object: moves towards the closest object it detects Escape Walk: moves towards the largest open space it finds Flinch Response: reacts to rapidly approaching objects Five Usage Modes: Direct Control: user controlled movement Autonomous Mode: self-directed interaction with its environment Guard Mode: similar to Guard Mode on other WowWee bots, Roboquad reacts to noises and movement with sound effects. Sleep: falls asleep after 5 minutes and powers down after 24 hours. Demo: features a dance routine Edge Detection Remote Control: for controlling movement, programming, and adjusting personalities 72 Preprogrammed functions 40 programmable moves Demo Mode

Hardware 4x leg motors 4x leg motor position sensors 2x head and neck motors (its head can swivel around completely) 2x lens-focused, face-mounted deep Infrared vision (13 ft range) 1x microphone 1x light sensor 1x Infrared remote control Requires 4 x C and 3 x AAA size batteries

Personalities Like other WowWee robots, the Roboquad has multiple 'personalities' which are dubbed 'States'. Those states are State of Awareness, State of Aggression and State of Activity, and they can each be set to low, medium or high. In the Awareness state, it spends more time scanning its surroundings. When its Aggression state is increased, its behaviour simulates anger and aggression and finally the higher the Activity state, the further and faster the Roboquad will wander. With its light, sound and IR sensors, Roboquad is pre-programmed to simulate reactions to external stimuli and acts accordingly.

Movement and Autonomy The Roboquad's legs all swivel around and so it is able to walk forward, backwards and sideways at about the same rate and mobility. Its head is also able to swivel around completely, so it is able to scan its surroundings without turning its body. In addition to its adjustable personalities (States), Roboquad's 5 different scanning sequences (described above in Features) are modulated according to how the personalities are tuned. The documentation states that Roboquad's infrared sensors are sensitive enough to allow it to navigate doorways.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Roboquad

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Roboquad claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Roboquad before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Roboquad ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Roboquad

In research: Roboquad appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Roboquad in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Roboquad is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2007 robots, Entertainment robots, Robotic dogs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Roboquad outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Roboquad” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Roboquad in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Roboquad means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Roboquad out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Roboquad in simple terms?

Referred to as "The first true robotic arthropod," Roboquad is one of the 5 robots that WowWee announced at CES in January 2007. It is a 4-legged robot that somewhat resembles a spider and a dog.

Why does Roboquad matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Roboquad?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Roboquad.