Aldebaran Robotics is the French company that develops this impressive humanoid bot, Nao. Nao replaced the AIBO as the standard platform in the Robocup challenge, an annual soccer game played by humanoid robots. This has helped cement the bot’s popularity among robot researchers and enthusiasts.
Nao is fully programmable, and boasts fancy tech: “With its humanoid appearance [Nao] can be made to do any number of tasks and comes with x86 AMD Geocode 500 Mhz CPU, 1 GB flash memory, 256 MB SDRAM, two speakers, vision processing capabilities, Wi-fi connectivity and Ethernet port.”
The robot is desirable to researchers and roboticists, because it gives them the ability to take a blank, versatile robot and program it to do whatever they want, including world-domination. Aldebaran is also working on a behavior exchange site where users can swap code they’ve written for little Nao.
Only about 100 Naos have been shipped since the bot’s inception in April — it’s distribution has so far been limited to only the robo-elite (labs and universities), but plans are in order to extend the user base next year to include some early adopters. The company is still working to create a version of Nao that will appeal to the general public, which probably won’t be until 2010. Until then you can start saving up the $12,600 it will cost to buy one.
[Wired]
The boffins at Virginia Tech’s Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory are showing off their bot’s latest incarnation, which they hope will lead to a win in the next RoboCup competition. It’s called the DARwIn IIIx, and apparently uses some of the same technology developed for Virgina Tech’s DARPA Urban Challenge entry, called “Odin,”. It’s a complete redesign compared to the previous DARwIn IIx model, with improved range of motion and a bunch of software upgrades that should improve its perception and let it better adapt to things like lighting conditions. Video below. Read the rest of this entry »
A group of eight University of Waterloo undergrads are working on what will be the world’s smallest radio-frequency controlled robot. Measuring a ridiculously small 300 by 300 microns—the width of two human hairs—the robot will play soccer. Soccer is often used as a test for robotics programmers, because the sport requires intelligence and dexterity that is highly desirable in a robot. The team wants to win the RoboCup Nanogram soccer competition next July in Australia.
In the competition the robot will have to move balls, avoid obstacles, and navigate around a field, all at a fraction of a millimeter. The technology could be implemented irl in interesting ways, most notably in medicine, where a controllable entity of this small scale would be beneficial. “It could help in the fertilization of an egg or in the identification of a serious bacterial infection.”
The team is basically taking RC-car technology to the nano level. Team founder Keith Peiris describes the bot’s movement mechanism “almost like a car with a balloon on it, in that we’re displacing air to push a device in different ways.” With crafty engineering and a very, very small antenna, this little robot just may be one day swimming through your blood vessels, collecting cholesterol from a lifetime of fatty foods and sedentary behavior. Godspeed, little robot.
Humanoid bots are getting even more super impressive as each day goes by. This video shows the Darmstadt Dribblers team in action at the recent 2008 Robocup. Thing is, they’re really playing like a soccer team, just well, a lot slower. This is the first year that three-on-three playing has taken place, using info exchange over Wi-Fi. You just have to watch. So watch.
Aldebaran Robotics is the French company that develops this impressive humanoid bot, Nao. Nao replaced the AIBO as the standard platform in the Robocup challenge, an annual soccer game played by humanoid robots. This has helped cement the bot’s popularity among robot researchers and enthusiasts.
A group of eight University of Waterloo undergrads are working on what will be the world’s smallest radio-frequency controlled robot. Measuring a ridiculously small 300 by 300 microns—the width of two human hairs—the robot will play soccer. Soccer is often used as a test for robotics programmers, because the sport requires intelligence and dexterity that is highly desirable in a robot. The team wants to win the RoboCup Nanogram soccer competition next July in Australia.
