NAO Next Gen : the V4 humanoid from Aldebaran Robotics
NAO Next Gen : the V4 humanoid from Aldebaran Robotics
by limor
Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:10 am
With Atom 1.6ghz embedded linux, HD camera, dynamic gait generator, inverse kinematics engine and a whole lot of software, the latest NAO was announced last week. Check out the professionally mastered video commercial where it is presented through its functionality rather then through the technical features of its composing parts.
phpBB [media]
by siempre.aprendiendo
Wed Dec 14, 2011 2:32 pm
Here the new specifications
And here, after login, you can download and use for several weeks Choregraphe, IMHO the best software to create behaviours I've have ever used.
http://naoforge.net/naodevblog/2011/12/ ... 2-download
And here, after login, you can download and use for several weeks Choregraphe, IMHO the best software to create behaviours I've have ever used.
http://naoforge.net/naodevblog/2011/12/ ... 2-download
phpBB [media]
Last edited by siempre.aprendiendo on Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
by PedroR
Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:33 pm
I'd like to contribute with some more information about NAO that is not very evident:
About Coreographe:
It is a very nice tool indeed, and the most advanced one I've seen so far.
It roughly resembles Visual Programming on MSRDS but goes way beyond:
- you can create parallel program flows
- All boxes have Python behind them, so you can actually double click and edit/customize the corresponding code to that box.
And my all time personal favourite in Coreographe, is the Motion Editor: you can tune the S curves from keyframe to keyframe just like you do in animation software.
This is something unique that I have never seen in any other software for Humanoids.
Now for the Advanced uses: NAO comes with a set of libraries called NaoQI.
These include libraries for Dynamic Gait Generation which goes beyond what DARwIn offers: not only can it generate Walking Gaits it can also:
- generate gaits to move the position of the hands (avoid collisions with it's own body)
- Full body motions to move the head: these will move the Pan & tilt system and to reach further up or further down it will use Full body motion to bend down or bend back, while retaining the center of gravity at all times.
There are a number of other libraries for:
- Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis
- Face Recognition
- BLOB Tracking
and many others. These are all part of an SDK which makes it a very cool platform!
About Coreographe:
It is a very nice tool indeed, and the most advanced one I've seen so far.
It roughly resembles Visual Programming on MSRDS but goes way beyond:
- you can create parallel program flows
- All boxes have Python behind them, so you can actually double click and edit/customize the corresponding code to that box.
And my all time personal favourite in Coreographe, is the Motion Editor: you can tune the S curves from keyframe to keyframe just like you do in animation software.
This is something unique that I have never seen in any other software for Humanoids.
Now for the Advanced uses: NAO comes with a set of libraries called NaoQI.
These include libraries for Dynamic Gait Generation which goes beyond what DARwIn offers: not only can it generate Walking Gaits it can also:
- generate gaits to move the position of the hands (avoid collisions with it's own body)
- Full body motions to move the head: these will move the Pan & tilt system and to reach further up or further down it will use Full body motion to bend down or bend back, while retaining the center of gravity at all times.
There are a number of other libraries for:
- Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis
- Face Recognition
- BLOB Tracking
and many others. These are all part of an SDK which makes it a very cool platform!
by Pev
Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:27 am
I have been on the Nao developer program for about a year and have been lucky enough to be included on the Next Gen test group. That let me actually get my hands on a Nao Next Gen for 2 weeks in November. Here are some observations:
1. Atom Processor : this is probably the biggest change and has resulted in everything Nao does working quicker and more smoothly, be it speech recognition, object recognition or animation (movement).
2. HD Camera: Great improvement in vision recognition and face recognition, particularly in low light situations.
3. New speech recognition using Nuance: This has really added a lot to Nao. The speech recognition is fast and accurate, allowing for new features such as word spotting.
4. Improved fall management: Fall management is greatly improved. If Nao falls for any reason (unbalanced himself or being knocked over) teh fall manager kicks in and removes power to the motors to protect the joints as he falls.
5. Improved smart motor control: This leads to higher refresh rates on the motors, better power management and generally a smoother movement.
6. Enhanced SDKs: Nao has additional SDKs for Java, Matlab and the latest version of Visual Studio, as well as the existing Python and C++.
These are the things that spring to mind at the moment, there is more Nao stuff on my blog at http://www.alt-view.co.uk if anyone is interested.
Carl
PS good to see a Nao section here
1. Atom Processor : this is probably the biggest change and has resulted in everything Nao does working quicker and more smoothly, be it speech recognition, object recognition or animation (movement).
2. HD Camera: Great improvement in vision recognition and face recognition, particularly in low light situations.
3. New speech recognition using Nuance: This has really added a lot to Nao. The speech recognition is fast and accurate, allowing for new features such as word spotting.
4. Improved fall management: Fall management is greatly improved. If Nao falls for any reason (unbalanced himself or being knocked over) teh fall manager kicks in and removes power to the motors to protect the joints as he falls.
5. Improved smart motor control: This leads to higher refresh rates on the motors, better power management and generally a smoother movement.
6. Enhanced SDKs: Nao has additional SDKs for Java, Matlab and the latest version of Visual Studio, as well as the existing Python and C++.
These are the things that spring to mind at the moment, there is more Nao stuff on my blog at http://www.alt-view.co.uk if anyone is interested.
Carl
PS good to see a Nao section here
