Nao is an autonomous, programmable and medium-sized humanoid robot, developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics, a start-up headquartered in Paris.
Although the Nao Academics Edition is already available for universities and laboratories for research purposes, it will not be available to the general public until late 2009 or 2010.
On August 15, 2007, Nao replaced the robot dog Aibo by Sony as the standard platform for the Robocup ("Robot Soccer World Cup"), an international robotics competition [1].
Contents |
Versions
Six prototypes of Nao were designed:
- from January 2005 to March 2006 : AL-01, AL-02 and al.-03
- from September 2005 to July 2006 : AL-04
- from June 2006 to June 2007 : AL-05.a
- from May 2007 to December 2007 : AL-05.b
On March 2008, a first finalized version (Nao Robocup Edition) was released to the Robocup's contestants [2].
In late 2008, the Nao Academics Edition was released to the academics and education market (universities and companies).
A general public version is to be launched late 2010 [3].
Specifications
| Technical Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Height | 58 cm |
| Weight | 4,3 kg |
| Autonomy | 45 min. (15 min. constant walking) |
| Degrees of freedom | 21 to 25 |
| CPU | x86 AMD GEODE 500MHz |
| Built-in OS | Linux |
| Compatible OS | Windows, MacOS, Linux |
| Programming languages | C++, C, Python, Urbi |
| Vision | Two CMOS 640 x 480 cameras[4] |
| Connectivity | Ethernet, Wi-Fi |
Nao Robocup Edition has 21 degrees of freedom (DOF) while Nao Academics Edition has 25 DOF since it is built with two hands with gripping abilities.
All versions feature an inertial sensor and 4 ultrasound captors that provide stability and positionning within space to Nao.
Nao also features a powerful multimedia system (4 microphones, 2 hi-fi speakers, 2 CMOS cameras) for text-to-speech synthesis, sound localization or facial and shape recognition amongst various other abilities.
The package includes a dedicated programming software, Aldebaran Choregraphe and Nao is compatible with Microsoft Robotics Studio, Cyberbotics' Webots and Gostai Urbi Studio [5]..
Use
Outside the academics area, many uses of Nao can be imagined: company robot, game partner, home-health aide, etc.
References
- ^ (English) Nao robot replaces AIBO in RoboCup Standard Platform League, EnGadget.com, Aug 16th 2007
- ^ (English) Standard Platform League, Tzi.de
- ^ (English) Nao - News from 06-22-2009
- ^ http://www.gizmag.com/nao-all-rounder-robot/13445/
- ^ (English) Fiche produit de Nao Academics Edition v3.3, Aldebaran Robotics
External links
- (English) Nao - About
- (English)(French) (NaoForge)
- (English)(French) (BlogYourNao Nao Social Network)
- (English)(French) (NaoFaq)
- (French) Le langage URBI (Universal Real-Time Behavior Interface)
- (English) An article (with video) in Wired
- (English) (Robotstadium an on-line programming competition based on the Nao robot)
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