Robotics  

Aldebaran Robotics has announced the launch of NAO Evolution, the new generation of its NAO robot, equipped with the NAOqi 2.0™ operating system.

French robot maker Aldebaran has announced the launch of NAO Evolution, the new generation of the popular NAO robot, equipped with the NAOqi 2.0™ operating system.
    
NAO Evolution is the fifth and latest generation of the interactive, autonomous, and fully programmable robot. NAO is already being used for specific research and education purposes. Over 5000 robots are currently operating in 70 countries.

According to the company's press release, NAO Evolution is the next big step for the development of innovative applications for a broad range of companies and content publishers.

The new robot has the the most up-to-date operating system, NAOqi 2.0, now being used by all of the company's robots, including the new emotional robot Pepper. Designed for easy natural voice interaction, the NAOqi environment includes a dialogue engine, an emotional engine, and Autonomous Life.

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All robots designed by Aldebaran share the same technologies and operating system, enabling the transfer applications from one robot to another with a minimum amount of adaptation. This includes the larger Aldebaran robot, Romeo, which is also proceeding with development. In this sense, Aldebaran has succeeded in the challenge of creating a unique "platform" available in several humanoid forms and benefiting from the same advanced software.

NAO Evolution also has improved functionality for easy interaction between humans and the robot and allowing developers to program complex sequences themselves:

• • Improved shape and facial detection and recognition using new algorithms 
• • Improved sound source location using 4 directional microphones 
• • Refined obstacle detection and distance estimation with a detection range from 1 cm (0.39 inches) to 3 m (9.8 feet) using new sonar telemeters 
• • More powerful battery: 48.6 watt-hours, giving NAO Evolution about 1 h 30 min of battery life in operational mode, i.e. 30% more than the previous generation. 
• Although NAO Evolution is the same size as before (height: 58 cm, 1.9 feet), it is now:
• • Stronger, with metal gears in the neck, hips, legs, and ankles. 
• • Quieter, with soles that dampen the noise and friction of its footsteps. 
• • More skillful, grasping objects more easily using finger grips. 

"Apart from schools and universities, we would like companies and the developer community to get hold of our robots and create applications that will ensure the success of NAO in the future."

"This new phase is fully in line with our vision of eventually offering the greatest possible number of humanoid robots for a variety of purposes" says Bruno Maisonnier, founder and CEO of Aldebaran. "Apart from schools and universities, we would like companies and the developer community to get hold of our robots and create applications that will ensure the success of NAO in the future."

Now available, NAO Evolution will be marketed with package per region.


SOURCE  Aldebaran Robotics

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 Robotics  

SoftBank and Aldebaran Robotics have announced the joint development of “Pepper”, the world’s first personal robot that can read emotions. Pepper, which incorporates variety of technologies and capabilities, will be commercially available in Japan next year for under $2000 USD.

Two years ago France's Aldebaran Robotics, makers of the popular research robot NAO, received a major financial boost from Japan's SoftBank.  Now, the fruits of this partnership have been realized in a new companion robot, called Pepper.

The two companies are saying that Pepper is first personal robot that can read emotions. The robot incorporates variety of technologies and capabilities.

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Pepper will be in the  SoftBank Omotesando and SoftBank Ginza stores this month, where people will be able to enjoy talking and interacting with the robot. SoftBank Mobile plans to subsequently station Pepper at more of its stores nationwide.

The name Pepper is claimed to refer to the robot's sparkling personality, and for the fact that it can be pronounced easily in multiple languages.

"We are pleased to offer the world's first personal robot that reads emotions, Pepper, which we developed with Aldebaran."

This robot has been created to make people happy to interact with. It is an emotional robot, not a functional robot, so don't expect it to do the dishes or vacuum the floor. Pepper will help people grow, enhance their life, facilitate relationship, he will have fun with them, give some services and connect them with the outside world, according to it's creators.

The humanoid robot is 4 feet tall, weighs just over 60 pounds and has 20 motors powering movements in its head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, fingers, hips, knees and more. It also has a 10.1-inch touch display on the front, and synchronizes with a cloud-based database for access to information.

Pepper comes with a tablet on it's chest for enhanced communication and interaction. "We do not aim at duplicating li[f]e and humans," claimes Aldebaran. Bringing additional capacities which will facilitate interaction is the main application of the tablet.

Pepper is able to speak English, French, Japanese and Spanish. In the next few months, new languages will be available on the Aldebaran Store.

The robot, will be commercially available in Japan from SoftBank Mobile next February for a base price of JPY 198,000—under $2000 USD. No word yet on when, or if, Pepper will be available elsewhere.

Maisonnier and Son With Pepper

Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Corp., commented in a press release, “Since foundation, we have followed our corporate philosophy of ‘Information Revolution – Happiness for everyone.’ To realize our vision, we have made a new entry into the robot business with the aim of developing affectionate robots that make people smile. Using emotion engines and Cloud AI, which evolves with collective wisdom, we're making this happen. As our first entry, we are pleased to offer the world's first personal robot that reads emotions, Pepper, which we developed with Aldebaran."

Aldebaran CEO Bruno Maisonnier claims this will be the start of a robot revolution that rivals the rollout of the PC and smartphone. According to him "With Pepper, the future begins today."




SOURCE  SoftBank and Aldebaran Robotics

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 Robotics  

After the success of it's NAO, small humanoid robot, Aldbaran Robotics has engaged a new challenge: the production of a larger robot called Romeo that will allow for interaction more effectively in everyday human environments.

Romeo is a humanoid robot from Aldebaran Robotics, known as the makers of the popular NAO robot.  Romeo is currently a development project that aims to create a real robotic personal assistant and companion; a test-bed for a larger NAO.

NAO was a worldwide success, with nearly 5,000 copies sold or rented since its launch in 2008. Initially restricted to researchers in robotics, it is has since been open to the world of education, and more. Aldebaran has also developed software to engage children with autism.

Having developed NAO, the company noted the new challenge: the production of a larger robot that would allow the robot to interact more effectively in everyday environments such as opening a door or take objects on a table.

Having developed NAO, the company noted the new challenge: the production of a larger robot that would allow the robot to interact more effectively in everyday environments such as opening a door or take objects on a table.

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Today, this research platform serves both to validate the use of assistance that will be enabled by a larger robot Nao and secondly to test new technologies that can be integrated on future products for the company. These innovations are derived from Aldebaran Robotics own but also the work of academic and industrial partners conducted within the framework of collaborative projects such as the PSPC project.

Among the items being tested with Romeo include: human robot interaction, mobile eyes and the vestibular system (balance), and force control.

Already four European laboratories have acquired early prototype versions of Romeo. There have been two versions, as planned when writing the project specifications. Between the two versions, the design of the spinal column changed, the final electronics were incorporated into the head, the shells of the upper body were made using more solid material, electronic wiring in the legs was improved, and the batteries were integrated, among other advances.

The robot has the size of a child of eight years (1.40 m) and weighs a little more (40 kilos). To be as light as possible, its body is made of carbon fiber and rubber, and was designed to avoid the risk of injury to the person that will attend. Today, Romeo can walk, see the three-dimensional environment, hear and speak, much like NAO.

One potential use of larger humanoid robots like Romeo is as caregivers.

Romeo was made only four copies, all purchased by European research organizations should receive in the coming months. The timeline for testing the robot in real-world conditions is projected for 2016, with the final objective of being able to use it in a retirement home in the 2017 or 2019.

Funded in part by the French government and the European Commission, the Romeo project budget totals 37 million Euros over the period from 2009-2016.

SOURCE  Project Romeo

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 Living With Robots  

Researchers have found that people expressed more positive feelings toward a robot that would take care of them than toward a robot that needed care.

Designers and engineers assign robots specific roles, such as servant, caregiver, assistant or playmate. Researchers have now found that people expressed more positive feelings toward a robot that would take care of them than toward a robot that needed care.

"For robot designers, this means greater emphasis on role assignments to robots," said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications at Penn State and co-director of University's Media Effects Research Laboratory. "How the robot is presented to users can send important signals to users about its helpfulness and intelligence, which can have consequences for how it is received by end users."

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To test how human perception of a robot changed based on its role, researchers observed 60 interactions between college students and a NAO social robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French company specializing in humanoid robots.

Each interaction could go one of two ways. The human could help NAO calibrate its eyes, or NAO could examine the human's eyes like a concerned eye doctor and make suggestions to improve vision.

Participants then filled out a questionnaire about their feelings toward the robot. Researchers used these answers to calculate the robot's perceived benefit and social presence in both scenarios. They published their results in the current issue of Computers in Human Behavior.

"When (humans) perceive greater benefit from the robot, they are more satisfied in their relationship with it, and even trust it more," Sundar said. "In addition, we found that when the robot cares for you, it seems to have greater social presence."

A robot with a strong social presence behaves and interacts like an authentic human, according to Ki Joon Kim, doctoral candidate in the department of interaction science, Sungkyunkwan University, in Korea, and lead author of the journal article.

The research team found that when participants perceived a strong social presence, they considered the caregiving robot smarter than the robot in the alternate scenario. Participants were also more likely to attribute human qualities to the caregiving robot.

"Social presence is particularly important in human-robot interactions and areas of artificial intelligence because the ultimate goal of designing and interacting with social robots is to provide users with strong feelings ofsocialness," said Kim.

The next immediate goal is to confirm these experimental findings in real-life situations where caretaker robots are already working. Examining how other robot roles influence human perception toward them is also important.

"We have just finished collecting data at a local retirement village in State College with the Homemate robot which we brought in from Korea," said Sundar. "In that study, we are examining differences in user reactions to a robot that is an assistant versus one that is framed as a companion."



SOURCE  Penn State University

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 Robotics  

RoboCup 2013 this year in The Netherlands featured over 2500 competitors. Video highlights from the competition show how far robotics have come, and how far they have to go.

RoboCup 2013 is over and done with, and that means videos of the matches.

Below are some highlight videos of the competition, but for the full matches, check out the RoboCup 2013 YouTube Channel.

This match features two teams of Aldebaran NAO robots:

RoboCup 2013 Kid Size FINAL: IRAN / USA

RoboCup 2013 Teen Size FINAL: GERMANY / JAPAN

The NimbRo TeenSize team from Germany had an easy win in the final of the Humanoid Teen Size League against CIT Brains Teen from Japan. The Japanese team had problems with their robots, while both the German robots were on the field for most of the match – a numerical superiority which they used to full advantage.

RoboCup 2013 Adult Size FINAL: TAIWAN / JAPAN

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The Adult Size final saw JoiTech from Japan take an early lead, when their robot managed to stop a penalty shot by their opponents from Taiwan who had beaten Tech United in the semi-final. But then JoiTech’s robot couldn’t find the ball when it was his turn to take a penalty shot, making the score even again. However the Japanese team went back into the lead when the next shot by the Taiwan team’s robot hit the goalpost. So at the end of the match the winners were the JoiTech team from Japan, giving them the World Champions title for the coming year!

Humanoid robots are nice, but the non-humanoid leagues are just so much better at playing soccer. It's incredible to see these robots support each other across the field, string together passed, and beat defenders to make aggressive shots on goal.

RoboCup 2013 - Semi Final: Tech United vs CAMBADA (Portugal)

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 Main Label  

Kankana Shukla's TED presentation with her NAO robot is more adorable than informative, but the researcher does point to some of the areas where humanoid robots will impact our lives in the future.

Kankana Shukla is best known for her work with the humanoid robots. She believes that robots will play an integral role in places ranging from households to industries and from hospitals to rehabilitation centers in the near future.

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Shukla has five NAO humanoid robots in the laboratory where she works and they are fully autonomous. These 26-inch robots made by Aldebaran Robotics can recognize you, grab objects for you, play soccer, talk, sing and dance and can perform many of the activities that a human to do. According to Shukla, "I am totally in love with these gems. I have seen a lot of robots from Sony Aibo to Honda's robots but none of those are as efficient as these."

As she writes on her blog, "That pretty much explains how the robots are about to rule over us! They are more efficient, loyal and faster than humans which makes them special, and thus replacement of a human labor with a robot will save millions of dollars every year for everyone. Whether it be in the field of medicine, or to lift heavy loads, or for recognition and millitary, robots preform far better than humans upon training."

Shukla thinks that soon every house will have a humanoid robot at home to help with the household chores. "Recently, NAO has been seen to be really helpful to elderly people undergoing therapy for Alzheimer's disease and kids facing ADHD and Autism. There is still a long way to go in the development of robots providing healthcare services, but we are on the right constructive track."

According to the researcher, "humanoid robots can do wonders in every field in our little world, the need is to put them in the correct hands of the people who are passionate about creating a difference."

SOURCE  TEDx Talks

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 Robotics Jobs

Aldebaran Robotics is recruiting engineering talents to join the NAO humanoid robot's dream team. The company build-up is linked to a push to develop robotic companions and consumer market androids.

T he makers of the amazing NAO research robot, Aldebaran Robotics have just announced a major recruiting drive at shapetheworld.fr.  This follows the company's securing major financial backing from Japan's Softbank earlier this year.

Aldebaran is a world leader in humanoid robotics. More than 450 universities, labs and schools worldwide are working with NAO in research and education.

For the future, the company has embraced the ambitious goal of developing humanoid robots for use by the general public. Of the more than 180 people at Aldebaran, including 40% in R&D, are involved in the development and production of NAO and future robots.

Aldebarn is currently looking to fill positions including:

• - C++ Developers

• - Processing Engineers

• - Software Integrators

• - Test Engineers

• - Audio Engineers

• - Mechanical Engineers

• - Robotics Engineers

• - and many more

Aldebaran believes that in coming years robots will positively impact our lives to the same extent as PCs and mobile devices did during the past three decades. According to the company, robots will change the way we learn, work and communicate.

A robotic companion to assist humans is no longer science fiction but a realistic answer to the requirements of an aging society. We are developing practical solutions for everyday life by conducting research in areas such as autistic child therapy, human-robot interaction and personal robotics.

To learn more and apply visit the shapetheworld.fr/







SOURCE  Twitter

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French TV channel LCI has released a feature on their home-grown best selling robot, the NAO from Aldebaran Robotics.  The feature does not provide much more than the promotional videos on the Aldebaran site, but if your like us, you can't get enough of the cute and capable NAO.

Nao le robot qui fait tout (LCI est @ Vous) Vidéo LCIWAT sélectionnée dans Actualité

In the video below a demonstration of NAO movement by using Kinect by NAO Developer Zecloud and Taylor Veltrop from Aldebaran Robotics at the Microsoft Tech Days, Paris on 7th February 2012.  Not quite as impressive as the cat grooming demo, but impressive nevertheless.