Fuji Soft's new humanoid is powered by Atom and Ubuntu

Fuji Soft's new humanoid is powered by Atom and Ubuntu



Fuji Soft Inc. has unveiled its first commercial bipedal humanoid robot at the All Japan Robot Tournament (Sumo Wrestling) competition, which it also sponsors. The robots (one of which is called Sakura-chan), will have an official name and price disclosed in early 2010, though the company stated that it will be affordable.

It is expected they will target universities and other educational institutes, meaning Aldebaran Robotics’ NAO may have some competition in Japan (with home field advantage no less). Also, one imagines the All Japan Robot Tournament will introduce a new standard class humanoid sumo league to their competitions, which could be quite popular given the often unbalanced nature of ROBO-ONE fights.

Some of the robot’s specifications have been revealed: it runs Linux Ubuntu on an Intel ATOM 1.66GHz CPU integrated with Eclipse and wireless LAN. It stands 39.8cm (15″) tall, weighs 1.56kg (3.5 lbs), and will have 20 degrees of freedom (2 legs x6, 2 arms x3, head x2). An LED array in its visor will display various expressions, which jives well with its overall AIBO-like appearance.

As far as sensors, the robot will be capable of image and speech recognition, so it will have at least one camera and microphone. It will be interesting to see how much it costs – I expect it will be priced competitively with Vstone’s Robovie-PC.

(Source: plasticpals.com)