flying robot

12.03.08

WowWee's Robo Copter

By popsci Posted 01.06.2008 at 11:51 am 0 Comments

At CES this year, toymaker WowWee continues its tradition of taking what had once been military- or millionaire-grade tech and selling it for less than the price of dinner for two at The Olive Garden.

Our favorite new creation is the FlyTech Bladestar a $50 autonomous flying robot. Essentially a helicopter blade with a set of perpendicular rotors to give it stability, the Bladestar uses infrared sensors to detect its proximity to obstacles walls, ceilings, pets and parents and avoid collisions. At least sometimes. The models we saw did a fair amount of crashing.

WowWee techs blamed that on the bright lights in the ballroom that messed with the infrared sensors.

In any case, it's just as much fun to watch whether it flying or crashing.—Sean Captain

Want more? Check out our entire CES 2008 coverage here.

READ MORE ABOUT > ces 2008, flying robot, flytech, helicopter blade, infrared sensors

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