ALDERABAN'S NAO NEXT GEN - The sequel to the already popular Nao Robot

   The Nao robot has been in development since 2004.  It was the product of Alderaban robotic's entry into the world of robotics.  The French company managed to make it a stable in the Robocup Competition.  It is one of the best toy robots one could ever wish for.  It is currently being used for research, education and developing new robot/human interactions.  At a price of around 15,000 it does everything from playing soccer, dancing, singing to reading books and drawing.  The Nao Next Gen is version 2.1 of the Nao Project.

OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION

NAO is a programmable, 57-cm tall humanoid robot with the following key components:

Body with 25 degrees of freedom (DOF) whose key elements are electric motors and actuators

Sensor network, including 2 cameras, 4 microphones, sonar rangefinder, 2 IR emitters and receivers, 1 inertial board, 9 tactile sensors, and 8 pressure sensors

Various communication devices, including voice synthesizer, LED lights, and 2 high-fidelity speakers

Intel ATOM 1,6ghz CPU (located in the head) that runs a Linux kernel and supports Aldebaran’s proprietary middleware (NAOqi)

Second CPU (located in the torso)

27,6-watt-hour battery that provides NAO with 1.5 or more hours of autonomy, depending on usage

    Nao Next Gen features all the sensors you would ever need to create the craziest robot in the world.  It features motion sensors, tactile sensors, object recognition, speech synthetizer, text to speech, Wifi connection, Infrared etc.  If you wanted a human-like robot then Nao Next Gen is the robot for you.  

     Its Choreographe software helps you bring Nao to life.  It is built on Python and Urbi.  It can easily call C++ generated modules.  The NAO NEXT GEN SDK(software development Kit) is a great way of learning to program our future robotic servants.  

The NAO NEXT GEN improves upon its predecessor in almost every aspect while retaining the original's proportions.  Its hardware and software have vastly improved.  So if you can shell out $15,000 for the best toy anyone could ever have then get the NAO NEXT GEN.  Sure it costs a lot but it would save you years in assembly and programming your own robot.  If you want one then talk to your University professor or some other person willing to shell out the 15,000 bucks to test it out.  

    

NAO NEXT GEN FEATURES

NAO MODELS

• NAO T14 -- This model only has the uppoer torso of the robot.  it looks really funny and it is also lucky that it costs half as much.  Only around USD $6800.00
• NAO H21 -- This is the educational institutions only version and it will set you back around $15,000 Features an X86 AMD GEODE 500MHz CPU: 256MB SDRAM / 2GB Flash Memory
• NAO H25 -- The academic Edition this is a full blown NAO NEXT GEN  robot.  It costs $15,000  Featuring the intel ATOM 1,6ghz CPU (located in the head) that runs a Linux kernel and supports Aldebaran’s proprietary middleware (NAOqi) with the second CPU on torso.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE >>> ALDEBARAN ROBOTICS >>> Creators of the NAO Robot

WIKIPEDIA  >>> NAO ROBOT >>> Read more about the NAO Robot

CNET >>>  NAO NEWS   >>> Coverage on NAO