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NAO Humanoid Robot Set To Hit the Market

Posted by kdawson on from the can-you-say-awww-cute dept.

KentuckyFC writes "Earlier this year, Paris-based Aldebaran-Robotics picked up $8 million in venture capital funding to help commercialize its NAO humanoid robot. The target market for this device is research labs working on the next generation of robotic hardware and software. Today, the company has posted a detailed spec of NAO on the arXiv saying that it expects the robot to cost about $15,000 each. That's cheap compared to other humanoids. Fuitsu's HOAP humanoids cost $50,000 each and various estimates price Honda's Asimo at $1 million per bot, although they are not for sale. Aldebaran-Robotics says that NAO's cost should come down to about $6,000 as production ramps up."

4 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Science Fiction to Science by Van+Cutter+Romney · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Somewhere in the back of my mind I have this strange feeling that we are slowly heading into Asimov's world. And all the problems (and benefits) that come along with it ...

    --
    Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
  2. Why humanoid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't see the appeal to having a humanoid robot. The robots in Wall*e for example were all designed for a function.

    I think of any robot as a machine. They are there to serve a purpose. Even the IVR systems make me angry when they imply "I'm sorry. I didn't get that". No, the computer didn't recognize what I said. And "you" aren't sorry.

    Anthropomorphizing robots, cute as they are in Wall*e, is insulting to the beauty of that which is life.

    1. Re:Why humanoid? by Wiarumas · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Just to bring up an interesting point, in the Animatrix's story about the rise of power of machines, they start out as humanoid (as we designed them that way) and evolve into insect-like creatures by the end as they continue to improve upon their robotic designs.

      --
      I will bend like a reed in the wind.
  3. Boston Dynamics Big Dog is the best by MrSteveSD · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww

    Why can't someone make a bipedal robot as impressive as bigdog?