Topo (robot)

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Topo is a robot, designed in the 1980s by Androbot Inc. Aimed at the consumer and educational market, it was programmable via Apple II. The programmable language allows the robot to perform a set of geometrical movements, moving precisely around the room and performing some minor task.

The robots were sold commercially starting in early 1983, and were intended to be relatively inexpensive. Units were beige molded plastic with 2 drive wheels as "feet" and stood about 36" tall. Operation was based on either Apple BASIC or a a modified "Logo" programming language, with an RF or Infrared programming transmitter attached to a personal computer. In its final revisions, the Topo capabilities included a text-to-speech processor, so that users could program their robots to wander around the house and "speak" to humans.