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Linux-powered Robots From France? Oui!
An anonymous reader writes "A French start-up created to build autonomous, easily programmable, affordable humanoid robots expects to ship its first product — a humanoid household service robot running Linux — in early 2007. The walking, talking, WiFi-enabled Nao household robot will stand 21.6 inches tall, and will feature 23 "degrees of freedom" of motion — three more than the 14-inch tall Choromet android announced earlier this week by four Japanese companies. Nao's extra degrees of freedom appear to come in the form of gripping hands."
I for one welcome our new blah blah blah overlords. Please, let your first act be banning this joke.
What amount of plastic explosives can this robot carry? What's its range?
..." BOOM!
"Oh look Mommy, a cute
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
But will it run?
This robot runs on free beer.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
My 4 year old son is obsessed with making his own "Mario angel" (aka - from "Angelic Layer"), and I've started looking for small, programmable robots he can putter with - anything bigger, and I fear for the safety of my household when he tries to program it with a Butt Stomp or some such.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
So many jokes, so little time...
...our new rude smelly overlords...
...robot army surrenders...
...collabrative software...
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Great, but can it strike?
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
Aldebaran Robotics was founded in early 2005 by Bruno Maisonnier. The company employs about a dozen, is 5 percent employee-owned, and has 17 investors, led by Maisonnier, who holds a 58 percent stake.
Wait a minute, wasn't Alderaan Robotics completely destroyed by Grand Moff Tarkin a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Not if they make them like their tanks, 5 reverse gears and one foward gear incase they are attacked from the rear.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
We may jest, but the French do have a long history of engineering. From the Eiffel Tower to Airbus, they have a good track record. I believe that the first ever hot air baloon flight was also there in the 18th century.
I am not usually a fan of the French, but I have to admit that they do a pretty good job of building stuff. Of course, I still prefer American engineering, but we seem to be lagging in the robot business.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Yeah know, this French "rifle dropping" stuff just isn't right. Now if you want to see first class rifle dropping read about the Anschluss Österreichs. It was bad engineering (frontline guns couldn't rotate enough) that allowed the Nazis to get into France, not the lack of courage. The French Resistance had serious testicle fortitude, the Austrians just rolled over and "thank you sir, may I have another".
Will they head-butt their opponents?
I mean, this is great - but will they get anything done in July or August? And, during those months, will they be supporting open-source Speedos?
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I would fear this army of robots but, since it runs Linux, it can do no harm.
I've seen motion sensitive camera software...how tricky would it be to mod this robot into a motion sensing attack robot with a motion sensitive firearm or bomb thrower? Has anyone attempted this tricky of a project? Is the motion sensing software (and facial recognition software) accurate enough to target soft vital areas, such as the eyes, on a fast moving target? Could these robots be useful as attack robots, especially since there doesn't seem to be any use for robots aside from housekeeping and defusing bombs, and the bomb defusing robots are RC...Is there already a linux project that accomplishes any of these goals, that could run on this or a similar platform? Or even better, an already built weapon with a camera that didn't need any modding...
When will someone take the sensors, gyros and other items used to make this work and upscale it so we can finally have Mech wars?
I see it coming already: "I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."
Reaches for remote...
"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time."
I'm not so sure this is a good idea.
Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
Let's see if the open source philosophy works with hardware too. For instance, Italian hackers could teach this robot to play soccer, French hackers to do proper headbutts, German ones to make unfunny jokes about other nations, and so on.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Laissé soyez soit le premier à dire...
I pour un, font bon accueil à nos nouveaux suzerains Linux-actionnés de robot de France !
will we have a Nao robot head-butting its opponents?
"...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
Daft Punk fans have known this since the 90s. Witness their latest non-musical project Electroma. It's a beautiful movie that follows two brave robots who want to find out what it means to be human.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
I, for one, look forward to our new French robotic overlords' surrender.
--- This
This means the French will be literally assembling an army to take back thier legacy of French Fries from those who renamed them Freedom Fries... and to think.... the only thing standing in thier way is http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/20/195 3256
All hail the new linux powered robot overlords with frency mustaches
welcome our new surrendering robotic overlords.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
ah, nevermind. The horse is putrescent. Is there a hose nearby? I need to wash off my boots.
sudo eat my shorts
Why are most of the slashdot posts movie quotes, or references to movies?
Quand est-ce que les modules de grain pour se rendre, mangeant le fromage et sentir de l'ail vont devenir une partie de la distribution de kernel.org?
It was bad engineering (frontline guns couldn't rotate enough) that allowed the Nazis to get into France,
Two responses.
First: I blame the software guys who wrote the frontlineGuns() routine.
Second: "The Germans wouldn't dare go through those woods to the north, would they?"
A surly, chain-smoking robot, to not do the work you need to get done around the home, which you cannot fire. Sign me up!
Disclaimer: Been to France a couple of times and actually the above would more properly be typical of Parisian behavior; the French people outside Paris have always been quite nice.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I now know why the French surrendered so much. They were building robots to take over the world. >.>
"I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes" ~ Laughing Man - GITS:SAC
So http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/08/21/france. heatwave/index.html/ 10,000 French won't die of the heat this summer?
"I improvise. It's my greatest talent. I prefer situations to plans..." --Wintermute, William Gibson's "Neuromancer"
...an entire ROBOTIC ARMY of cheeze-eatin' surrender monkeys!
*reminded of cheesy robot battle in Eurotrip* Hahah and I was worried.... ok maybe I wasn't.
They also have very shoddy runway maintainence. The Concorde crash was caused by a large piece of debris that wasn't cleaned up after the previous plane took off. Part of the engine housing from a DC-10, if memory serves.
Goten Xiao
Wow, I just had to kill 2 birds with one stone.
Seriously, A french robot? Come on. Its for sale as a submissive sex partner isn't it? I mean, thats all the french seem to be good for anyways...the submissive part.
Warning: Corny karma killing post above.
Airbus it is NOT French but European. And flies.
The HKR-1 has been out for a while now. At a ballpark of $1,500, affordability is debatable.
Seems like a very similar platform, minus the wifi (which could be added).
I would be interested to see the price point at which these new linux+wifi bots would be sold. I would be surprised to see a sub $500 pricetag, and probably happy to see a sub $1,000 price point.
I wonder what this company feels is affordable?
We Apprentice Developers and Designers
You should see the hordes of animals at De Gualle.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
The French surrendered half of their country to the most formidable fighting machine in existence in 1940.
The United States, with one of the most formidable fighting machines in existence in 1975, cut and ran from a third-world guerilla army who often subsisted on a daily handful of rice.
Project much?
Remember everybody, Robots are our friends.
As long as the French don't build them like their prizefighters ;)
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
Aren't there only six?
So, we are going to get a bunch of surly, lazy, obnoxious robots from France.
But I thought Bender was Mexican?
www.eFax.com are spammers
Now they will have robots to do their surendering.
Surrender jokes. It's like Little Green Footballs circa March 2003 all over again.
Anyone have anything interesting to say? About robots?
The French surrendered half of their country to the most formidable fighting machine in existence in 1940.
The United States, with one of the most formidable fighting machines in existence in 1975, cut and ran from a third-world guerilla army who often subsisted on a daily handful of rice.
Project much?
============
At first I thought, "Cool! Some innovative /.'er will mod this to do cool stuff like wash dishes or vacuum". Then I remembered how nafareous some of you guys are. Please keep in mind. This robot is too short to be a sex toy!
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
since it runs Linux, it can do no harm.
That's because the user will be spending 99% of their time updating to the latest versions of the software packages and being told to RTFM by tech support when it won't turn on.
But at least it isn't running windows, that would scare me.
Sig withheld to protect the innocent.
I know it is an attempt at a joke but it is getting very old.
In WWII the Americans had 11,200 civilian casualties, the French had 267,000. In total the Americans had 407,300 military casualties from a population of 132 million, the French had 212,000 from a population of 41.7 million.
Nao's extra degrees of freedom appear to come in the form of gripping hands. Coochi-coochi coo!
Atleast we know Isaac Asimov's Laws of not harming anyone will be followed.
French WW2 rifles for sale - excellent condition - only dropped once.
Oh please. From Wikipedia:
It would appear the French didn't have much luck in Vietnam either. If the French had gotten the job done the US never would have had to get involved there. Another fine moment in French military history.
At least if they decide to go Skynet on the world we know the French robots will never be able to win a war.
In Soviet France, robot overlords surrender to YOU!!! But will it run Linux?^W^W^W^W^W
Ah, another famous LGF/Freeper Straw Man argument.
The point you missed/ignored was France lost to the one of the most powerful armies on earth; we barely got our helicopters off the embassy roof in Saigon before it was overrun by a bunch of third-world commie guerillas. We surrendered/cut and ran/etc. Are we Big Mac eating surrender baboons?
BTW: why haven't you enlisted to fight in Iraq?
As the first order of business the robots were taught how to wave a white flag.
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
The use of humanoid robots will be limited to pointless tasks (greeters at Walmart)in the future. They are difficult to make, difficult to maintain (mechanically) and won't ever match the abilities of humans as long as we keep them "humanoid". The cost will never be less than the minimal benefits. You'd be better off with holograms for greeters once the technology is ironed out. In fact, for virtually any human/sentient machine interaction you're better off with holograms or VR. The only need for robotics is when you're dealing with physical interaction with objects (assembly or dangerous tasks) or people (surgery, sex bots built like spiders with sexy female human legs in black hosiery and the head of Amanda Donohoe, and let's face it... combat). And in every instance, the humanoid form is not that great. I want my robotic surgeon to have lasers built into his multiple tendrils (hopefully a few million of them) and nanoscale filaments that can perform cellular level cuts and sutures. No humanoid android will ever have that ability. Humanoid robots are overrated. Now if you want some applications for humanoid androids, I hear Disney has some openings in the "It's a Small World" display...
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
From wikipedia:
Main article: American Revolutionary War
On 10 January 1776, Thomas Paine published a political pamphlet entitled Common Sense arguing that the only solution to the problems with Britain was republicanism and independence from Great Britain.
On 4 July 1776, the United States Declaration of Independence was ratified by the Second Continental Congress. Note that the war began in 1775, while the declaration was issued in 1776. Until this point, the colonies sought favorable peace terms; a majority did not approve of an outright push for independence.
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, commonly known as the Articles of Confederation, formed the first governing document of the United States of America, combining the colonies of the American Revolutionary War into a loose confederation of sovereign states. The second Continental Congress adopted the Articles on 15 November 1777.
The British continued to blockade the American coast, but French merchants, with funding from the French government, sent in large supplies of munitions.
British attack the South, 1779-1781
That fleet was defeated by a French fleet, however. Trapped at Yorktown, the British surrendered their main combat army to Washington in October, 1781. Although King George III wanted to fight on, his supporters lost control of Parliament and the war effectively ended for America.
We should use other staples. Yes, it DOES run linux.
An illegally modified American DC-10 (they used titanium instead of aluminium, which is illegal)
...doesnt sound quite the same
mordre mon âne brillant en métal.
mordre:bite
mon:my
brilliant:shiny
(you get the picture)
> and will feature 23 "degrees of freedom" of motion
you mean as in "freedom fries"?
Also, do french robots only move backwards? (hey wait, weren't those italian robots? my bad...)
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
..and most of them are not even remotely funny (I'm not French btw).
Most people seem to forget that France is the country that epitomized the humanistic zeitgeist in the overthrough of their authoritarian government (which wasn't a cakewalk) and pushed forth the ideal of equality. Voltaire's thoughts had a great influence on the rest of Europe, America ("I don't agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.") and beyond. People like Jules Verne are sons of that country, especially "techies" and scifi freaks should value his inspiring stories. The same country whose government surrendered in WWII developed one of the finest cuisines and wines that exist. Music by Bizet and Debussy are part of our world's culture (and beautiful examples at that).
I know this is a wee bit OT, but so are those surrender 'jokes'. I guess my point is, if you have to make fun of another country, make sure it's really funny!
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
Most of them are ridiculously lame. If you don't have anything interesting to say.....move along.
As an italian, I am offended that you'd say french people smell of garlic. That's strictly our domain. And olive oil.
The french smell more of BO.
And Paris (literally) smells of dog poo in the summer.
110100 1101000 1101000 1100110 0 1101111 1101000 1100011 1
Is it that there these are robots? It is because they run linux? Or is because they're made in France?
And I want it to look like Chii dang it! :-P
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
I for one am weary of French automatons roaming about freely. I bet we would all be embarassed if our new robotic overlords all wore berets and ran on stinky cheese. On a serious note these bots seem pretty impressive. The fact they appear to be very hacker friendly is exciting. I'm looking forward to playing with one.
WTF?
As a French, I'm compelled to head-butt you.
Not even two feet tall, it strikes me as nothing more than a toy.
Not that there's anything wrong with it being a toy, but the article makes reference to them being "household" robots, which should imply that there is a measure of practical usefulness to them in the household.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I actually dual-boot Kubuntu and use it for "serious" work (not just trying out new packages), yet Adept is still at the top of my most used programs list.
.... if the UK or the US would have fared any better if they had been the neighbours of the Third Reicht.
France was overwhelmed, the USSR lost 20 million people. Poland, Austria absorbed almost without any resistence.
USians and UKians should count themselves lucky and stop the stupid jokes. They are insensitive (like if the French were waiting to surrender, specially after the horroros of WWI) and frankly in very bad taste.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
How does one say, "Must Kill All Humans" in french. I ndded to know what to listen for.
Smeghead every day of the week.
Italians also surrender better.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
Too funny!!! Michael Locker MD
Please link to the actual site, not the blog. We don't need to read all the blogodreck and ads.
We surrendered because you tree hugging liberals forced the issue by cutting off funding in Congress for the war. It's hard to continue to fight when don't have your funding for things like food, clothing, weapons and equipment cut off by Congress. Your the worst kind of ignorant douche bag.
(I'm the A/C here who posted the "Non, non, non!!!" comment)
/. moderators who don't know French either :-)
I don't speak French at all... I just used Babelfish. Still it's pretty neat that I got a +5 Funny from all the
Cheers!
while (drunk == false) { getMeABeer(); }
> We surrendered because you tree hugging liberals forced the issue by cutting off funding in Congress for the war.
The tree hugging liberals were actually in the army and fighting in Vietnam. You right wing xenophobes were getting deferments because you had better things to do.
"a humanoid household service robot running Linux" Thats all well and good but.. can it shoot lasers?
Hey guys!
I don't know what all of you have against French people involved in Robotics, but France has some top-notch Robotics engineers, including a lot of researchers contributing to the HRP-2 platform (Choromet's big brother). URBI is a French scripting language, too, and French research really *is* represented during Robotics conferences such as ICRA and all.
So let's trust the engineers behind Nao and see what will happen in 2007!
The monarchy ruled France until 1789, when the French Revolution took place. So the government that aided the colonies isn't the government he's referring to. The government he's referring to is the pansies that were occupied by Germany twice. A government who's parliament voted 569-80 to dissolve and establish the Nazi run Vichy government. That acquiescence is the reason that, to this day, the French are referred to as "cheese eating surrender monkeys", you ignorant bastard.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/zidane_hea dbutt_outrage/
factor 966971: 966971
"we're talking active, deployable, useful military weapons and not the past-due-date stuff"
So was I. The 500 that have been found in recent years still have potent chemical weapon contents: quite deadly. The rocket part of the shell is "past due", but each of these 500 shells was active and deployable by delivery through other means than launching, or launching on a new delivery system. To accept the idea that they are "past due", we have to use a silly and contrived definition of WMD that includes "if it can't be launched on a missile or artilery shell, it is not a WMD". One of these 500 shells is enough to prove "no WMD!" a lie. 500 is more than enough. That is certain. What is less certain (but very probable) is the idea that, if Saddam were kept in power and the ineffective Blix "inspect only when Saddam sanitizes the place" inspection regime were still in place, these would have NEVER been found.
And who provided him these weapons? Not the US, but a Dutch man named Frans van Anraat. You can replace the "There were no WMD in Iraq; Bush lied!" claim with your "There are plenty of WMD, but they are hard to launch".... but that is quite a retreat. Now as for Rush and Kool-aid: Rush (with or without Geddy Lee) did not find these WMD. If you think that the contents of the warheads are harmless, I invite you to drink. Just like Kool-Aid, eh?
Where were you when the voynix came?
> The tree hugging liberals were actually in the army and fighting in Vietnam. You right wing xenophobes were getting deferments because you had better things to do.
Prove that more liberals than conservatives fought in Vietnam. You can't can you? Typical liberal. Making statements not supported by facts.
Don't forget bashing America for being brutal when we show up to save their asses yet again.
The French voted to surrender after defeat was inevitable and in the context of losing tens of millions of lives in the span of two generations to war YOU STUPID FUCK. Americans should be the last to talk after what Chimpy's done to your country's rights and freedoms, and after your acts against two nations, over an loss that would have been a good day for France during either WW1 or WW2. Are all American Rushbots such insular, navel-gazing fuckwits?
The Nao is decidely reminiscent of MegaMan, while the Choromet looks like a cross between something from any of the Gundams and Bubblegum Crisis. Is it possible to build a humanoid robot that doesn't rip off a Japanese TV show or videogame, people?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
On one hand, I would love a robot. On the other hand, I'll bet they are expensive. On the gripping hand, Moties aren't available for purchase.
I did a quick search for some data, just to see if you're full of crap or not. It turns out that in 2000, 13.7% of Democrats in congress were Vietnam vets. In contrast, only 10.5% of congressional Republicans served in Vietnam. (Sources: VVIC and the congressional directory) Even though Republicans outnumbered Democrats, there were still more Democratic Vets than Republican ones. So there's some data for you to think about.
Now let's see you come up with proof that the typical liberal makes statements not supported by facts. You wouldn't say something nasty about liberals if it weren't true, right? I mean, you clearly have such a respect for factual data that it's unthinkable that you'd throw around baseless accusations that amount to nothing but a childish rant.
I don't remember La Fayette ever surrendred...
But that's right, Vietnam was a great victory on the terrain for the two armies mentionned above.
Not to say in 1939 UK had 20 divisions which retreated as fast as history books appreciate to forget it.
But wait. Off-topic. That robot was simply not built to destroy. Unless someone mounts a chainsaw on it, objective Redmond.
To the "conservative" Anonymous Coward: The "liberal's" comment (dispite his subsequent research) was really a reference to George W. Bush's draft-dodging during the Vietnam War. Either you are feigning ignorance, or you truly did not understand his comment. I will assume that you are not an entirely stupid man, and that you are simply feigning ignorace in order to exasperate the "liberal" poster. You have likely succeeded. Well done.
Your argument about Vietnam signals that you never had a stake in the war. Let's use an example in which you do have a stake. In many ways, the Iraq War is similar to the Vietnam War: There is no clear end in sight, and no exit strategy. It is a war fought in a third-world country against enemies using guerilla tactics, whose politics we do not adequately comprehend. So: Why are you not fighting? Imagine that you were in the army in Iraq, and that you were killed by a roadside bomb. Your future is gone. Anyone who cares about you is wrecked. Your body has been torn apart. You are dead. Was it worth it?
(Those who advocate war should be required to fight in it.)
Je dois tuer tous les humains.
Glad I could help.
My mother was appalled - she's a politically active liberal Republican who didn't like either George Bush, and while she'd heard the politicians doing their anti-French rant, she hadn't seen anyone actually believing it back on the East Coast. I hadn't seen any Free Dumb Fries here in Silicon Valley either, but it's a sufficiently blue state that I wouldn't expect to find them much closer than maybe Fresno.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Sorry - I didn't post this, nobody saw me, you can't prove a thing....
Damn straight.
For my fellow Americans who are stupid enough to buy that there was something wrong with the French government's disbanding, think about what would happen if the Pacific Ocean didn't exist, and Germany's western border was instead along our eastern coast. The Nazi war machine (which in those days was considered somewhat invincible) would have torn through our meager defences and been in Missouri within a month. (Our successes in fighting the Nazis had a lot to do with being able to ramp up a military machine without interference from constant bombing and invasion, as well as the Russians killing all the first string Nazi soldiers, and the second string, and the third, leaving us to fight mostly Hitler Youth regiments by 1944)
Given that outcome, what do you think the guys all the way back in Washington D.C. would do then, hmm? Especially when there was a Nazi army standing in the streets outside? Surrender, maybe?
It's not like the French Government had much choice. Indeed, the far right assholes in France couldn't WAIT to put on uniforms so they could start cracking the heads of their more liberal neighbors. There's a group of those kind of fucks in EVERY country, but there are fewer in France today, 'cause a lot of them suddenly got very dead in the days following France's liberation.
France is not a nation of soft-hearted sissys. They're stubborn, proud, vocal, arrogant, and occassionally vicious when they think the situation warrants it. God bless 'em, they're just like us Americans!
The right in America actually hates them because France won't kneel down and lick boot, but rather happily tells America when to get bent.
There has been a lot of excellent French engineering, though there's also a tradition of central planning by "experts", which led to things like the Maginot Line, attacking Russia in winter, suppression of regional languages, and a lot of the 19th-century mercantilism. Hopefully the robotics engineering will more resemble the social structure of French painting...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
My initial impression of "hordes of animals at De Gaulle" was the crowds of people waiting in various lines to buy tickets or go through customs or whatever. But you're probably talking about all the rabbits hanging around the outside green spaces? CDG also had *lots* of plane-spotters hanging around when I was last there - kind of a weird obsession, but it was plane-spotters who provided a lot of the evidence about CIA planes hauling kidnapped people around to secret prisons.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
"Euro-hell" - British food, German humour, French technology.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
At least the French had the sense to get out when it was hopeless, rather than continuing to escalate because backing down would send a message that we were wimps and ensuring that Communism would continue to oppress people for decades afterwords, though it's mostly gone now. All in all, it was another fine moment in militarist history.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
But the anti-French posts seem to be vastly outnumbering the pro-Linux ones.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it