Genibo QD
Created by South Korean company dASA ROBOT, the QD was originally released in 2005 for the Korean market before being exported for international sales. Design and feature wise, it bares a lot of similarities to the Aibo ERS-7 (touch strip on back and head, similar leg and body design). But it also has some of its own unique qualities such as added touch points on the side of the body and the ability to add custom voice commands and eye emotes.
The robot can function in both autonomously and be controlled via remote control and wirelessly via the LAN PC software. It's noted by owners that compared to aibo, the autonomous functionality of the robot seems to be lacking in terms of doing things on its own accord and heavily depends on interaction with people to be entertaining.
Other functions include being to get up after a fall, dance (quite impressively), obey a wide list of voice commands, face recognition and take photographs that it can send to your PC.
Accessories included with the QD are a remote, charging station, battery, extra tail, manuals, wireless router, USB wireless dongle and software discs for the PC control manager software.
The QD was available in pearl white, metallic pink, metallic blue and pearl black. The black version also features blue ears similar to the Genibo M.
The Genibo QD was originally available to purchase from suppliers in the US for $1650, but this price fluctuated year on year.
The QD weights roughly 1.5kg
Genibo SD
Genibo SD is the second generation Genibo created by Dongbu Robot, that features hardware improvements over the original. This includes an upgraded CPU and a change in servos.
They switched to HerkuleX branded servos rather than custom-made for the legs so that people could easily source their own replacements. The size of the new servos means the legs of the SD look bulkier than the original QD model. (I think the exact serve might be similar to the DS-0101 servo the company sells).
The SD was originally made for purchase in the US around 2011 for $2000 before dropping to the $1700 mark.
Genibo M
The Genibo M was a special version of the Genibo developed solely for educational use at institutions. The firmware it came with was more open so the robot could be programmed to a high level and supported MSRDS (Microsoft Robotics Development Studio). It allowed programmers to have full control over the robot's systems.
Physically the robot is similar to the QD, but has noticeable physical differences such as a transparent shell and LEDs under the shells which can be turned on or off. The ears are also a transparent blue. The Genibo M was available in red, blue and black from vendors that dealt with educational purchases.
Genibo M was capable of 500 different movements, can make 291 sounds and has 37 pre-programmed eye emoticons. 15 DOF, 11 touch sensors scattered across its body, 1.3 MP camera in its nose, PSD and 2x tilt sensors.
Prototypes and Unsold Variants
There's not much information available about the creation of Genibo, so visibly different prototypes have yet to be seen other than the press QD prototypes that feature a silver or white coloured belly shells rather than the retail black. These units also feature silver paws and one features mis-matched pink-white shell plastics.
Other than the QD promotional image units, there was also the rare appearance of an unreleased champaign brown coloured Genibo that seemed reminiscent of the 'Honey Brown' Aibo ERS-7M3. This robot was seen at numerous promotional events in Korea and Western demo appearances.
Resources (User Manuals)
Click the image below to download the English version of the Genibo SD User Manual. I am currently searching for copies of the other manuals.
