Discover Top Posts Tagged with #probot

#star wars #star wars art #probe droid #probot #imperial probe droid #the empire strikes back #star wars concept art #ralph mcquarrie #joe johnston #Hoth #star wars behind the scenes

ProBot the "Professional Robot" (1986) by Joe McCord, the Robot Co., Costa Mesa, California. The caption of the first photo is, "Child riding on a robot at Laguna Hills mall" (Douglas Miller 1988). The second photo shows ProBot with Joe McCord, its creator.

"McCord, who owned the Robot Co. in Costa Mesa, was contacted to do an episode for the Life With Lucy show with ProBot, short for Professional Robot. "At the time, it was the most advanced in the world for a working robot," said McCord, who manipulated the 5-foot-tall machine. He paid $2,500 for engineers to build the robot. "[Lucille Ball] was warm and friendly and no-nonsense." The script has Ball trying to bring technology to a hardware store she co-owns with Curtis McGibbon, played by Gale Gordon. She brings in Rupert [AKA ProBot]. Rupert chases Gordon around the set after he orders it out of the store. The robot, or rather McCord with the aid of a synthesizer, had two speaking lines: "How do you do, Curtis?" and "Oh, yeah? Make me!" For McCord, the week he worked with Ball is priceless. "She was warm and friendly and no-nonsense," he recalled. "She was very professional and a perfectionist." " – "He loved Lucy and he worked with her" By Cecilia Chan, The Arizona Republic (1986).

At the 1992 Costa Mesa Robot Faire, "adults and children can learn the basics of operating a robot, either through the use of voices or by manipulating tiny remote control units. Guests can strike up a conversation with robots equipped with reverse-audio systems that enable the operator, and hence the robot, to hear and respond to visitor’s remarks. However, there’s more to this game than pushing a few buttons, warned McCord. “I can teach anybody how to run a robot in about five minutes,” he said. “But running it and making it come alive are two different things. “Robots have a personality all their own (but) it’s an extension of the operator. That’s not something that can be taught. Just to carry on a conversation through a robot is an art.” Chatting it up with or through a pile of aluminum, wiring and fiberglass may be a bit awkward for adults, but for most children, it’s a perfectly reasonable idea, McCord said. “We call it suspending disbelief,” he said. “Adults know the robot is not alive, but for at least a minute or two they’re willing to believe it’s real.” " – Joining the Circuits: You Can Touch, Talk to and Clown Around With the Merchandise at Robot Faire in Costa Mesa, by Corinne Flocked, Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1992.

#cybernetics #robot #ProBot #1986