Bruno Maisonnier, the founder of Aldebaran Robotics, recently gave a lecture about robots.  I don’t think this is the whole thing, but it’s still a good 25 m 43 s long.  According to Maisonnier, the reason to build humanoid robots is simply because they are easier to interact with and more acceptable by people.  He states that Aldebaran Robotics’ goal is to create robots for the development and well being of human kind.  He points to cartoons, such as Astro Boy and Mickey Mouse, for examples of the shapes and characters we find appealing.  He also shows some other examples of humanoid robots that shares a lot in common with our Illustrated Guide to Designing Humanoid Robots.  Perhaps Bruno reads Plastic Pals, or maybe we’re just on the same wavelength?  In any case, it seems Project ROMEO is still in full swing as hinted by some of the slides.  We hope to get a proper in-depth look at ROMEO later this year.

Video (part 1, Introduction) (Mirror):

Video (part 2, Why Robots) (Mirror):

Video (part 3, Why Humanoids) (Mirror):

In general I felt it was a good presentation, but of course he did gloss over some of the competition, especially newer robots like the DARwIn-OP (though to be fair, it hasn’t really had a chance to prove itself).

via [NAO Video Blog]