Aldebaran is well known for its lovable and cute Nao, the robot that everyone wants. But it has also been working on a full size humanoid robot for a while and now we have a video of it in action. It isn't much of a video and, as Romeo is sitting down, we don't get to see how good his walking software is.
Do we detect just a hint of the uncanny valley effect in this performance? He certainly isn't as cute as Nao, which is sufficiently non-humanoid to not induce any creepy feelings. However what most observers are waiting to see is if Romeo can manage to walk without the need for the low center of gravity that say Azimo seem to need to maintain. Romeo seems to have a much less squat and slender construction at 4ft 8in (143cm) tall.
It will also be interesting to see how fast the software develops given the access Aldebaran has to the similar software in Nao.
Since its debut in 2008, Android has released 39 version updates with feature additions, improvements and fixes. The major milestones have been recorded in this visual timeline.
