Aldebaran Robotics have announced the latest version of their Nao robot, the V4. The V4 features many enhancements but probably the most significant is the new Atom based processor that is now standard. Here is their promo video.
Posted: 09/12/2011 21:14:05
by
Carl Clement
The Nao robot has a range of facilities to let you interact with it, from tactile sensors to vision system and speech recognition. However, with the V3.3 based Nao the speech recognition systems capabilities don't really stretch to free format speech input. What I mean by this is that the speech recognition system can currently be provided with a word or phase list and will recognise these words. This is great for interactions based around Nao asking a question or awaiting a command but doesn't address the need to be able to input free format speech.
Why would you want free format speech input? Imagine you have a question, you want to be able to ask Nao and let him do the work of searching the internet for the answer. Once he gets the answer he can tell you what he has found. The basis for this type of operation are already here with things such as Nao Knowledge, NaoPedia and WikiQuery, behaviours already available for Nao. The issue is how do you get your free format, spoken question over to Nao?
Aldebaran have already addressed this area by providing an XMPP based remote calling system for Nao that they have implemented as a widget interface. What I wanted to do was take it a little further and see if we could get speech input. This is the prototype we ended up with:
Posted: 07/12/2011 21:17:13
by
Carl Clement
As most of you know, I am involved with working on the Nao Robot, through the Nao Developer Program. It's what most of my blog is about. Well, Aldebaran Robotics still have opening on their developer program. If you want to be involved in the development of the Nao Robot there are still opportunities. It's a great community to work with and is supported actively by Aldebaran, as well as having input from a lot of developers from all over the world. You get to play with some of the most advanced robotics equipment available, and meet a great bunch of people. Have a look at the promo video:
Posted: 18/11/2011 21:23:05
by
Carl Clement