Overview — HERO 2000, Heathkit's Multiprocessor Robot

What it is

The HERO 2000 is the largest, most capable, and most expensive robot Heathkit ever built — a 1986 educational and automation-training machine that bears little resemblance, under the skin, to the 6808-based HERO 1 and HERO Jr that preceded it. Where those earlier robots ran a single 8-bit microprocessor, the HERO 2000 is a multiprocessor computer on wheels: an Intel 8088 master delegating motion, sensing, speech, and communication to a set of dedicated slave processors, all plugged into a passive backplane the way the cards of a desktop computer plug into a motherboard (hero.dsavage.net HERO 2000 spec sheet; theoldrobots.com; Wikipedia, “HERO (robot)”).

It is also a physically different class of machine. The HERO 2000 stands roughly 32 inches tall and weighs about 78 pounds with its arm fitted — a waist-high robot rather than the 19-to-20-inch tabletop machines that came before (HERO 2000 spec sheet). A 360-degree ring of sonar and light sensors lets it perceive its surroundings in every direction at once; a multi-jointed optional arm gives it reach; and a speech subsystem turns ordinary typed text directly into spoken words. The robot was sold both as a kit and assembled, and it was the platform for a Heath/Zenith Educational Systems course in robotics and automation (Computer History Museum).

Figure 1 — A HERO 2000 with its optional arm fitted. The "HERO 2000" badge sits
below a head carrying a row of status LEDs and a sonar turret; the multi-jointed arm
and gripper extend from the tors… — Figure 1 — A HERO 2000 with its optional arm fitted. The "HERO 2000" badge sits below a head carrying a row of status LEDs and a sonar turret; the multi-jointed arm and gripper extend from the torso over the wide wheeled base. Source: "Hero-2000.jpg" by Ryan Patrick Smythe, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A note on the model number

This deep dive refers to the machine as the HERO 2000, model ET-19 (with the kit sold as ET-19W). That is the Heathkit model number — it follows ET-18, the HERO 1 — and it is the designation on the factory Technical Manual and on collector listings (HERO 2000 spec sheet; worthpoint/collector listings). The name “ET-2000” appears informally — in some references and listings — but it does not appear to be the machine’s actual Heathkit model number; “ET-19” is. Where “ET-2000” is encountered it should be read as a common name for the HERO 2000, not as the model code.

Headline facts

Table 1 — Headline facts

Attribute	Value	Source
Name / model	HERO 2000 — model ET-19 (kit ET-19W)	spec sheet; collector listings
Maker	Heath Company / Heath-Zenith Educational Systems	CHM; Wikipedia
Year	1986 (one source says 1987)	Wikipedia; robotworkshop
Price	$1,999.95 kit / $4,499.95 assembled	robotworkshop
Units produced	~3,000	Wikipedia
Line discontinued	1995	Wikipedia
Main CPU	Intel 8088, 16-bit, ~5 MHz (one source 4.77 MHz)	spec sheet; secondary
Slave processors	Intel 8042 UPIs — 6 base, up to 11 with the arm	spec sheet; Wikipedia
RAM	24 KB, expandable to 576 KB via cards	theoldrobots; robotworkshop
ROM	64 KB (monitor + HERO 2000 BASIC + routines)	spec sheet; theoldrobots
Backplane	Passive, up to 12 plug-in cards	theoldrobots; Selectric
Sonar	24 bearings, 15° apart (360°); ~4–4.5 in to 10.5 ft	spec sheet; theoldrobots
Light	255 levels at 24 bearings	spec sheet
Sound / temperature	255 levels / +60°F to +90°F	spec sheet
Arm (optional)	Multi-joint + gripper, ~1 lb payload	spec sheet
Speech	Direct text-to-speech (SSI 263A per spec sheet; “SPA-256” per others)	spec sheet; secondaries
I/O	Two RS-232 ports; remote console; ~100 ft radio link	spec sheet; theoldrobots
Drive	Two-wheel dual servo drive; pulls ~26 lb	theoldrobots
Power	12 V battery (14 Ah spec sheet / 24 Ah theoldrobots); ~4–6 h active	spec sheet; theoldrobots
Dimensions / weight	16.5 × 22.5 × 32.4 in; ~78 lb with arm	spec sheet

Several of these rows carry a conflict between sources — the 8088 clock, the slave type, the speech chip, the battery rating, the sonar near-range, and the year. This deep dive flags each conflict where it arises rather than silently choosing one figure, and gates the chip-level details to the transcribed factory spec sheet (hero.dsavage.net), which is the most technically specific source available; the factory ET-19 Technical Manual is the authoritative primary a reader should consult for the definitive numbers.

What sets it apart

For all that it shares the HERO name, the HERO 2000 is a generational leap, and three features carry most of the difference.

It is a multiprocessor. The defining architectural fact is that no single processor does everything. An Intel 8088 master — the same processor family as the IBM PC/XT and the Heath/Zenith Z-151 computers (selectric.org) — runs the user’s program, while a set of Intel 8042 UPI slave processors each take charge of one subsystem: one drives the motors, one runs the sonar, one handles the keypad and display, one manages communications, and, with the optional arm fitted, one more runs the arm (HERO 2000 spec sheet). Counting the slaves, the robot carries on the order of six to eleven processors working in parallel (Wikipedia; spec sheet). Vol. 2 takes up this architecture in detail.

It senses in every direction. Rather than a single forward-facing sonar like the HERO 1 and HERO Jr, the HERO 2000 carries a 360-degree ring of sonar and light sensing — 24 bearings spaced 15 degrees apart — so it can map the ranges and light levels all around it without turning (HERO 2000 spec sheet). Vol. 5 covers the ring.

It speaks from text. The HERO 1 and HERO Jr spoke through Votrax phoneme synthesizers that had to be fed streams of phoneme codes. The HERO 2000 instead offers direct text-to-speech: a program hands it ordinary text and the robot says it (HERO 2000 spec sheet). Vol. 7 covers the speech subsystem and the chip-identity conflict in the record.

Where it sat in the HERO line

The HERO 2000 was the top of the line and the end of it. At roughly $2,000 as a kit and $4,500 assembled it was far costlier than the ~$600 HERO Jr or the $1,500–$2,500 HERO 1, and at about 3,000 units it sold in smaller numbers than either; Heathkit supported the HERO family until 1995 (Wikipedia; robotworkshop). It was aimed not at the living room, like the HERO Jr, but at serious education and industrial-automation training — the kind of setting that would use its dual serial ports, its expandable memory, and its programmability in HERO 2000 BASIC and assembly.

The contrast with its siblings is the quickest way to place it:

Table 2 — The contrast with its siblings is the quickest way to place it

	HERO 1 (ET-18)	HERO Jr (RT-1)	HERO 2000 (ET-19)
Year / market	1982 educational	1984 consumer	1986 advanced trainer
CPU	6808 @ 1 MHz	6808 @ 1 MHz	Intel 8088 + 8042 slaves (6→11)
RAM / ROM	4 KB / ~2 KB	2 KB→24 KB / 32 KB	24 KB→576 KB / 64 KB
Sonar	4 in–8 ft, 1 bearing	Polaroid, 1 bearing	360°, 24 bearings, to 10.5 ft
Speech	Optional Votrax	Built-in Votrax	Direct text-to-speech
Size / weight	20″ / 39 lb	19″	32″ / ~78 lb
Price	$1,500–2,500	~$600	$2,000 / $4,500

A fuller cross-robot matrix sits in _shared/comparison.md. The volumes that follow open each layer of the machine: Vol. 2 the multiprocessor architecture and the backplane; Vol. 3 the memory and the card cage; Vol. 4 the dual-servo drive; Vol. 5 the 360-degree sensing ring; Vol. 6 the optional arm; Vol. 7 the text-to-speech subsystem; Vol. 8 the I/O, communications, and programming; and Vol. 9 acquiring and restoring one today. Vol. 10 is the cheatsheet.