Fujitsu To Ship Linux Powered Robot in July

Radical Rad writes "The Register is reporting that Fujitsu will be shipping a consumer robot in July called HOAP for Humanoid Open Architecture Platform and it will be running a real-time version of Linux. They plan to release info on the controls system to make it possible to program using C/C++. The 7 kg robot is wired with USB and can have an optional 802.11b transceiver." This thing could be a lot of fun to program and send around the house.

Comments

price?

[bumby]

"This thing could be a lot of fun to program and send around the house."

Sure could, but I don't want to see the price-sticker.

Actually I don't think the ideal helper-bots are humanoids. I beleave specialdesigned bots will do better. One bot does one thing, and does it good ;) e.g. open the door, clean floor, etc.

Re:Tethered?

[chefbimbo]

Ok, it already got hands so it can go get me beer out of the fridge (my fridge is slightly higher than the robot so that works).

Now if you also add a pussy this thing WILL be sold even at 50K. Maintenance sure would be cheaper than with a girl.

Why little humanoids?

[gad_zuki!]

I really liked the look of the new toshiba robot, it looks like it can do more than interact with a doll house, which seems to be the design criteria behind these tiny humanoid bots.

802.11, LCD screen, and voice recognition could make it a very cool extension of your PC. It can find you, show (or read) your email, let you send replies via voice, etc. If your PC is connected to your entertainment system if could be a rolling video jukebox. Have it display your divx collection and send a signal to the PC to play the video on the TV.

There's a lot a "PC on wheels" can do now with 802.11b and broadband. I think the "ethernet everwhere" crowd would be better served by a central and movable programmable device than putting an ethernet card in the fridge and in the toaster.

A real usable robot will not look like a man, it will look like an appliance. Preferably with a cup holder and magazine rack. Oh, and a vaccum attachment would be nice too.

When these bots are able to do something other than be bots for the sake of being bots then we'll be seeing some real innovation.

Re:Why humanoid design?

[firewrought]

Well, nature took a few million years to come up with this design, and it's actually a pretty good one.

It's pretty good, but nature didn't open source the perception/actuation software. Problems like "walking" are still difficult, especially if you have to worry about stairs, uneven terrain, varying surface conditions, local obstacles, etc. The point of the first poster is that you can avoid most of these problems upfront by choosing a cleverer form factor.