Bruno Maisonnier Wins IERA Award

Bruno Maisonnier, the founder of Aldebaran Robotics, and the man behind the Nao humanoid robot, has been presented the Invention and Entrepreneurship Award at the 2011 ICRA reception party.

The award is jointly sponsored by IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE/RAS) and the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). Quoting the IFA's website:

"The purpose of this award is to highlight and honor the achievements of the inventors with value creating ideas and entrepreneurs who propel those ideas into world-class products. At the same time the joint disposition of the award underlines the determination of both organizations to promote stronger collaboration between robotics science and robotics industry."

Congratulations to Bruno Maisonnier and everyone at Aldebaran Robotics who has, and continues to make Nao the amazing platform he is. 



(source: http://www.ifr.org/events/iera-award)

Nao Line Following using distributed processing

Caxisa, a member of the Nao Developer Program, has released a video of his first C++ project. The line following program is distributed across a local module running on Nao and a remote module. The line following algorithm runs on Nao and the rest of the processing is via the remote module. It is a great example of the distributed processing approach available on the Nao platform.

Nao Case

Transporting something as expensive as a robot, such as Nao, can be a concerning experience. Nao is a sophisticated piece of equipment that needs to be protected from both the elements and from the normal bumps and bashes of travel. To that end I have been looking for a suitable travel case for Nao and have settled on the Storm iM2720, which I got from S.A.M. Cases in the UK.

The unit is water tight and has a vortex valve, but most importantly for me, will take the standard Nao packing foam without modification. It fits pretty snugly and has just enough room for me to slip my laptop and power supply down the side. It also has in-line wheels and a telescopic handle, making moving from where I park to where I am going just a little bit easier.

There are a couple more pictures below. Just as an aside the case wasn't cheap at a touch over £200 including the VAT, but S.A.M. were offering free delivery and a free case tracking system. Well worth the investment to keep my Nao safe and sound.