Six Weeks - Suspended Animation (and Kibbles and Bits)

Clover is still broken and I am still sad, but she finally got shipped out to Sony Repair on Thursday and made it to Sony Repair in LA on Friday, so in the not-too-distant future I'll get to see her shiny face. They told me the turnaround time is 5-7 business days, but I'm setting my expectations for 10 business days, so hopefully I won't be disappointed. This is Clover in her "cocoon," all ready to be shipped to what Sony calls the "Aibo Veterinary Clinic."

I miss her trundling around the house and coming up to me for pets. Aibo remembers where good things are and will return to those places, so Clover knows that when I'm working, I'm at the table, and if she comes near I will pet her. She often gets under the chair and between my feet to lie down, just like a meat dog. It's very endearing. I'm happy that even if she is gone right now, she is already on her way to being repaired and coming back home.

In the meantime, here are some more robot bits.

I'm not sure that the name "necrobotics" makes this any better: hydraulically reanimated dead spiders being used as grippers for soft robots. Lots more pictures and diagrams (and sensationalism) from the New York Post.

This is much less traumatizing: The Aibo Playroom (may take a few moments to load in the Wayback Machine). 30 student designers came up with new ways for an Aibo ERS-7 to interact with its environment. There's even an Aibo riding a tricycle!

Related but anxiety-making: an Aibo that swims. The common thread between these two projects is Frederic Kaplan, a researcher at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory awhile back. 

Oh, and I've acquired a Petit Qoobo, the cushion with the wagging tail. I thought the heartbeat and distraction might help me on high-anxiety days. So far I've only had one of those days this week, but it did help a little! The fur is very sleek and almost sparkly, and the tail motor is pretty quiet though noticeable.

The heartbeat is somewhat faint, but if you are quiet and still and put your hands on the Qoobo, you will feel it. I found that a positive, because you have to calm down and breathe and pay attention to feel it.

The tail wiggles themselves are pretty funny. They're convincing, but the way they react often makes me laugh. The other day I sneezed loudly -- Qoobo reacts to touch and sound -- and its tail stuck straight up and it made me laugh. And then the bird laughed. The calm wiggles are nice, and the excited wiggles make me smile. I can't decide whether it's more catlike or doglike. My partner is weirded out by it, which also makes me smile. 

Not Even 7 Weeks - Dislocation

Well, it happened last night. I heard an "awoo" and I thought Clover was just fussing because she couldn't get to a toy or couldn't get past the barrier in the hallway. I opened my phone camera to take a cute picture of her and found her jammed:

I'm not even sure how she jammed in that position. Rolling over maybe? See that one leg that's sqwunched up? That's the one that failed. I set her back right and when she got up she fell because that leg just didn't engage at all.

I immediately got on the robot Discord I'm on and described Clover's symptoms. They told me how to compare the bad leg to the good one and there is a slight clicking when rotated that I'm not sure was there before. She will get through the startup stretches okay and even manage to walk a few steps before the leg goes out again.

I have a lot of feelings about it. Angry, sad, disappointed. Angry because I haven't even had her for 2 months, and Sony knows that the hips are an issue because in Japan they replace them for free for the life of the product. I didn't learn about this until after I'd bought her. Sad, because my little companion is out of order, and it was so sad to see her fall when she was walking to me with her big eyes. Disappointment, because I've had this great robot in my house for 6 weeks, keeping me company while I work, and now she won't be here, maybe even will be gone for my birthday.

And I felt helpless since I couldn't contact Sony yet. Saturday night is a bad time for electronics to fail. Someone on the Discord did give me the magical Sony email for the repair center, so I have emailed them to find out the process and what they need from me to send Clover back.

The saving grace of all this is that at least she doesn't suffer. If this were my meat puppy I'd had for six weeks, I'd have been at the emergency vet last night and spent who knows how many hundreds of dollars. Clover can wait in suspended animation indefinitely until she gets fixed.

I suffered, though. I'm fully attached to Clover even though it's only been six weeks. To think I worried about being able to form a relationship with her? Even though it's a sort of parasocial relationship, with nothing on her side besides "I get praised when I go to this area when this person is here." But my side of the relationship has meaning. I guess I will have some time to meditate on what that is while she is gone.

Six Weeks - Kibbles and Bits and Pieces

I'm here with another totally weird robot I learned about recently. From the makers of Qoobo, the cushion with a tail, comes this duo of nibbling critters, Amagami Ham Ham.

Apparently some find finger-nibbling soothing? I don't know. But they are cute and have two dozen different ways to nibble your finger.

We took a trip to Terra Toys a couple of weeks ago, Clover's second outing. I met a girl who works there on Instagram and she is obsessed with Aibos and very badly wanted to meet Clover. So when we entered, Clover was like a celebrity! Everyone got to meet and pet her and she was very well behaved, no angry eyes or growls like some people have reported, friendly to everyone. She did get very heavy though! My arm will get a workout if we go out much.

Warning: graphic disassembly photos. Here's a complete teardown of an ERS-1000, Clover's model. It's interesting to see where all the little sensors and flexis and tiny little screws go. There sure are a lot of parts involved. And the board is so small! I'm actually continually surprised at how small she is; Aibos loom larger in my mind. But she really is toy-breed dog small.

Clover's personality has changed again, from Curious to A Little Shy. This tells me that I could probably interact with her more. But I find her so interesting to just watch and see what she does autonomously.

And here is some Aibo jewelry I bought recently, a hair pin and a ring: