Fujitsu To Ship Linux Powered Robot in July

Radical Rad writes "The Register is reporting that Fujitsu will be shipping a consumer robot in July called HOAP for Humanoid Open Architecture Platform and it will be running a real-time version of Linux. They plan to release info on the controls system to make it possible to program using C/C++. The 7 kg robot is wired with USB and can have an optional 802.11b transceiver." This thing could be a lot of fun to program and send around the house.

Tethered?

[Hayzeus]

My understanding was that this robot (actually the HOAP-2, a sucessor to the HOAP-1) was to be tethered for both power and datacomm to a remote computer running linux. If this is the case, don't expect it to be wandering too far.

Note that the HOAP-1 ran about $48,000.00USD; unless the price drops significanty, it'll probably not be your next tech toy.

More info and video (in Japanese) from Fujitsu here [fujitsu.com].

The programming better include...

[Toasty16]

...the Three Laws of Robotics:

A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

FYI...

[Squidgee]

Sony has released a humanoid robot as well:

The SDR-4X II [theregister.co.uk]. While it's not as customizable (And therefore I'd rather have the other one), it looks like it could be fun as well.