Pet Robot

Pet Robot

This is our 'ickle' pet robot called Nao. Li is really its Mum, and she takes care, nurtures and programs her. We are not sure if it is boy or girl, perhaps more a girl perhaps? We need a more imaginative name as well I feel.

If anyone has ever read Isaac Asimov, I Robot, then you can see the future here. One day we will all own robots and perhaps become humanchines or cyborgs. It is already starting. Some humans display robot tendencies, mostly conservative politicians, or celebrities perhaps. We even have an athlete whose trade mark is a robot, 'Mobot' !

This particular 'friendly' baby robot has not gone on the rampage yet, but who knows when it might 'flip' and start to think it is human. It can even play football and do other clever stuff. I wonder if it tells jokes?

Any ideas what to name it?

From Wikipedia

Nao (pronounced now) is an autonomous, programmable humanoid robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French startup company headquartered in Paris. The robot's development began with the launch of Project Nao in 2004. On 15 August 2007, Nao replaced Sony's robot dog Aibo as the robot used in the Robot Soccer World Cup (Robocup) Standard Platform League (SPL), an international robotics competition. The Nao was used in RoboCup 2008 and 2009, and the NaoV3R was chosen as the platform for the SPL at RoboCup 2010.

The Nao Academics Edition was developed for universities and laboratories for research and education purposes, and was made publicly available by 2011. In October 2010, the University of Tokyo purchased 30 Nao robots for their Nakamura Lab, with hopes of developing the robots into active lab assistants. Since 2011, the robot has entered use in numerous academic institutions worldwide, including India's IIT Kanpur.

In the summer of 2010, Nao made global headlines with a synchronized dance routine at the Shanghai Expo in China. In December 2010, a Nao robot was demonstrated doing a stand-up comedy routine, and a new version of the robot was released, featuring sculpted arms and improved motors. In December 2011, Aldebaran Robotics released the Nao Next Gen, featuring enhanced software, a more powerful CPU and HD cameras.