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Sanyo Announces "Banryu" Home Security Robot

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the insert-mecha-godzilla-joke-here dept.

Fooferaw writes "From the Sanyo web site: Sanyo and smaller tmsuk announce the next version of their "Banryu" home robot shaped somewhat like a dragon (it has the shiny curves of an AIBO, IMO). The Banryu can walk 15m/min., hear, sense in the infrared, and apparently "smell" a fire in the home. It even transmit real-time video." Corrected: The title initially said Sharp...I must have Zaurus on the brain.

2 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Smokers by sheetsda · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hope so too, considering:
    -Smoke rises
    -The thing is 700mm tall (~28 inches)
    -My bed is about the same height or higher
    So if I'm in bed (you'd think I would be if I'm having this thing patrol my house, but then again it probably makes a lot of noise) I'll be dead of smoke inhalation before its warnings go off if it didn't detect more than just a high concentration of smoke.

    And speaking of its dimensions, did anyone else notice how big this thing is? A meter long, and almost as tall and wide. A lot of people are making fun of the "home security" concept but given a threatening posture, its size, and composition (its a goddamn robot), it may be more effective at scaring off burglars than one might think (though there are definitely some serious questions remaining there). My question is, whats to stop the burglars from stealing this really novel (read: expensive) looking piece of equipment?

  2. Dynamic walking, and running by Animats · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Most of these walking robots still walk at the wind-up toy level. They don't have the accelerometers, rate gyros, and algorithms for dynamic walking, let alone running. They should; those parts aren't that big or expensive any more, because they're used in auto stability control systems.

    The big Honda humanoid robot has it right, but costs too much.

    Went to a talk at Stanford today on low-cost stereo vision systems. Those have been around for years, but they're about to get cheap. Unfortunately, the killer apps are security-related, but the robotics community will benefit anyway.

    We're getting close to actually being able to do this stuff right, after decades of frustration in the robotics community.