Earlier this week, Hitachi captured the attention of the Blogosphere with its 'new' security robot.

Not so fast, says MobileRobots. Apparently, Hitachi's robot is simply a repackaged Pioneer DX. "The wheel rims are the giveaway. The Pioneer DX systems sold a few years ago had unique gold wheel rims custom-manufactured for our company, which can be seen quite clearly in the photo."

One hopes that Hitachi's innovation is in the software. The security robot is supposedly able to plot its navigation and recognize when things look out of the ordinary. Hitachi has not formally responded to MobileRobots, so there's no way to know for certain.

There is more in the original press release and in vnunet.com's follow-up story.

Tags See All Tags Add New Tag...

Please Enter New Tags Separated By Comma's
Or Close

Comments

Written by Eric ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) on 2006-03-10 14:51:35

it certainly looks like a DX, but I've gotta say that's somewhat of a stretch. Gold anodizing is something you can do in your basement.

Did Activmedia (change your name back, please) sell a bot to them?

Re: Comments
Written by J Wolfgang Goerlich ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

on 2006-03-11 16:22:24

Did Activmedia (change your name back, please) sell a bot to them?

Yes. From what I understand, several Pioneer DX robots were sold to Hitachi by a local distributor, Revast Technologies.

will this backfire?
Written by Eric ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) on 2006-03-15 01:18:45

I feel that this may backfire on MobileRobots, possibly skewering some sales. I'm a customer, and it annoyed me.

I've always admired the wheels on Activmedia robots. Maybe Hitachi salvaged them and scrapped the robots.

Write Comment
Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted. Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed.
Name:
E-mail (invisible to spambots)
Homepage
Title:
BBCode:
Comment:
Code:*