Robots Rule interviewed Derek Dotson, one of the original founders of Ugobe who’s now the CEO of Innvo Labs, the subsidiary of Jetta that’s now producing the Pleo. We reported on Monday that the new Pleos now for sale from Innovo are identical to the Pleos sold by Ugobe, but it turns out that the new Pleos actually have a number of minor upgrades:

-The problem with neck wires breaking which affected some Pleos has been fixed
-The problem of the skin separating has been fixed
-The premature wearing of the paint from Pleo’s skin and teeth has been fixed. The new paint should last 3 times longer than the old one.
-The packaging Pleo comes in no longer uses Styrofoam and is biodegradable making it friendly to the environment
-The battery chargers have a new switch with two positions, one for regular charging and another that uses a special charging mode created specifically for those batteries that don’t charge properly. It drains the battery completely and then “force” charges it for 16 hours. This should bring many of the problem batteries back to life, although some batteries aren’t salvageable because they’re just plain dead. Also, the charger can use the old A/C adapter and it can charge the old Ugobe batteries too.
-Due to a change in the hearing system Pleo responds better to your voice when it comes to figuring out where you are (left or right of him).

If you’ve got a Ugobe Pleo and you want an Innovo Pleo, you can upgrade through the “Reincarnation Program” for $245, which will not (repeat: not) preserve your Pleo’s personality traits or learned behaviors.

Derek also talked a little bit about Pleo’s future (i.e. the next model, due out in 2010). Some tidbits on that, after the jump. (Read more…)

If you wanted a Pleo but were wary of purchasing one since Ugobe went under last April, the good news is that new ones are (finally) back on the market again thanks to the acquisition of Ugobe by manufacturer Jetta. The bad news is that they’re exactly the same as the old ones, which means that all of the original Pleos that were available on Amazon for below wholesale cost have shot up in price. Still, this is good news in general for the Pleo community, assuming that Jetta manages to avoid the same issues that Ugobe had and actually make some money… If Pleo does well, we can hope for some accessories and software upgrades and maybe even some new models. Like maybe a carnivorous one, you know, to keep Pleo in shape. Wouldn’t that be fun.

[ Pleo Store ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

Thanks Andrew!

GetRobo has an excellent interview with John Sosoka, previously the CTO of Ugobe. Since Ugobe folded, John has moved on to two other robotics companies: Vita Robotica, which builds platforms and tools for development of social robots, and Pulse-Robotics, which will create robots based on the tools that Vita Robotica comes up with.

I am fascinated in this life-in-robotics thing. And what I’m currently most interested in is in developing robots for special needs such as medical applications and companionship in institutions. For example, there are so many interesting things that have come up in the use of therapy dogs, and I think there are a lot of areas where medications don’t work well and where you can make use of robotics. Automated diagnostics at home is another area. Companion robots could help people keep track of their health everyday so that they can identify problems before they become real problems. There are not enough products that address those areas, and I think the market is pretty wide open.

The full interview has lots more, including another take on why Ugobe failed and John’s thoughts on the consumer robotics market. Check it out over at GetRobo.

[ Pleo Creators Form New Venture ]

Thanks Norri!

Pleo does not, fortunately, come with the ability to dance to Britney Spears songs while wearing funny hats. That is Britney Spears, right? These new moves come courtesy of an alpha version of a Pleo SDK, or software development kit. The Pleo SDK (PDK) should allow more direct access to Pleo’s underlying controls, in addition to the various home-brewed bits of software that are currently available, like MySkit.

From what I’ve been able to gather, the most important part of the PDK might be the the code for things like Pleo’s social programming, which could potentially allow Pleo’s autonomy (read: personality) to be modified as well. This is a little ways away, though… As I understand it, access to an SDK gives clever programmers the tools they need to build user-friendly programs to give less adept people the ability to control hardware on a level that they’re more comfortable with. The availability of the SDK is the first step, but it’ll take a little bit for it to get worked into something for your average end user. The good news is that it looks like Ugobe intentionally made Pleo easy to hack and customize in this way, so we’ll keep you updated as progress is made.

Oh, and just a reminder that Pleo is going to resume production (resume, not necessarily with anything new), but it’s currently about $150 on Amazon, which is only $10 over the manufacturing cost, and about $50 under the wholesale price.

[ BobThePleo ] VIA [ Engadget ]