Sony has created a walking robot that can dance, stand on one leg and even score goals. It follows in the footsteps of the company鈥檚 successful interactive robot dog, AIBO.
鈥淚t鈥檚 more than a toy, but it鈥檚 purpose is as an entertainment robot,鈥� says Rick Clancy of Sony, New Jersey. 鈥淚t dances for one thing, and if it takes a fall, it can get back up again. It looks pretty cool.鈥�
Known only as SDR-3X, the biped robot has 24 moving joints, stands 50 centimetres high and can take leisurely strolls at a speed of 0.9 kilometres per hour.
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The walking robot can recognise 20 spoken commands, which it receives via two microphones implanted in one of its ears. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also got a camera and image recognition capability, so it can recognise a coloured ball and kick it towards a goal,鈥� says Clancy.
Sony has yet to decide whether the robot will go on sale. It also seems unclear as to how people would use the robot. 鈥淎t this stage, it鈥檚 a prototype,鈥� says Silvia Shin of Sony Europe in Berlin. 鈥淲hat exactly you鈥檇 do with it, to be honest, I don鈥檛 know.鈥�