About Us

We are committed to preserving working examples of early personal and educational robots.  The main focus of the collection are robots from the first wave of personal robots in the 80’s and 90’s with some later robots included too.  A few of these robots like the HERO, Androbot, and RB5X are well known but there were plenty of other obscure robots that are very interesting too.  Robots that have their own on-board brain (early microcomputers) to make them autonomous are of particular interest.  There are also some “Showbots” listed from that era since they helped generate interest in robotics and many could be upgraded to make them more than just remote controlled.  You’ll find information of each of these robots under the “Robot Gallery” section of the site.

If you happen to have an old robot or come across one that you need to find a new home for checkout the “Robots Wanted” section of the site.  There are quite a few items there that we are still looking for.  It would help us preserve the history of personal robotics!  Even if you have something that isn’t specifically listed in the wanted section please e-mail us with what you have.

For those of you that have a robot and you need assistance getting it to work again then you’ve come to the right place.  Under the “Robot Parts” section you’ll find a sample of some of the spare robot parts and upgrades on hand.  Since we had purchased the HERO line and the remaining inventory of parts for them that is the main focus.  We do however have some spare parts for other robots so it is always worth inquiring if a particular part is available.  It helps if you can provide a part number or description of the part or upgrade you want.

The “Robot Repairs” section is there in case you need a hand getting your robot running again.  There will be some repair tips to get you started.  If you are stuck or hardware isn’t your thing then there is an option to send in boards for repair.  We have test fixtures setup here for working on all the HERO robots (1, Jr, 2000, and Arm Trainer) so just the boards can be sent in for repair and not a whole robot.  Under certain circumstances a whole robot can be sent in for repair if scheduled first.

Under the “Robot Articles” you will find a list of magazine articles we’ve written on a variety of robotics topics.  Publications include SERVO magazine, Nuts’N’Volts, and Make.  Look for more articles added to that list as they come out.  If you have any comments or questions about any of the published articles please let us know!

The “Robot Workshop” section will focus on current projects, custom robot projects, misc electronics projects, and details on past Battlebots robots.  The larger Battlebot “Crash Test Dummy” appeared on the TV show.

If you have any suggestions to improve the site or content that should be added please let us know.

Thank you for visiting,

Robert

E-mail: rdoerr@bizserve.com