Today's Robots Pt I: Real Humanoid Servants

Humanoid robot servants in development or on the market

This is a list (in no particular order) of the some of the most promising humanoid robots that are in development and some that are even on the market already.

(Shown above is Kawanda's HRP 3. More info below)

REEM (Spain: Pal Robotics)

REEM is a full-size humanoid service robot from Spain that can be a receptionist or guide. It can hold a 1kg load in each hand and 30kg on it's back platform. There are several in use in malls in Abu Dhabi. You can buy one for about $270,000

Pal Robotics has also released a walking humanoid robot platform named REEM C for labs to purchase for research and development for around $300,000

http://pal-robotics.com/en/products/

ASIMO (Honda)

Intended to eventually serve all our household needs, Asimo seems to have the most impressive human-like articulation and bipedal mobility of any developing humanoid robots. It can communicate in Japanese, English and ASL and it can use stairs, run, and serve drinks.

ASIMO can be seen showing its capabilities at Disneyland daily. But ASIMO is still in development and Honda has not announced a goal date for when he might be available for purchase in the US. Though some say you can buy one for $1,000,000

http://asimo.honda.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a0HnVqh1jU

Pepper (France: Aldebaran)

This robot is designed not for labor but companionship. Pepper is a social robot able to converse with you and move and live autonomously. It's designed to recognize and react to your emotions and even express its own emotions (pretty sure every movie says that's bad news)

Pepper will be released next year for $1,900

http://www.aldebaran.com/en/robots

Romeo (Aldebaran)

Romeo is intended to be an assistant to the elderly but he's still in early development

http://www.aldebaran.com/en/robots

CHARLI (US: Romela)

CHARLI is a US robot used for humanoid robot balancing research. He plays soccer...slowly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llfYoFG7WrY
http://www.romela.org/main/CHARLI:_Cognitive_Humanoid_Autonomous_Robot_with_Learning_Intelligence

Nao (France: Aldebaran)

Too small to do much housework, the Nao is more of a very expensive toy companion around the house. He can recognize you, communicate, dance, teach multiplication tables, and wake you up in the morning.

The price has recently dropped from $16,000 to $7,990

http://www.aldebaran.com/en/robots
(He also plays soccer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhooVgC_0eY

Akinci (Turkey: AKINSOFT)

This robot isn't quite as far developed as the others on the list but seems to be well on his way. He can walk, identify objects and has some verbal communication capability.

Most notable is how the designers thought it would be good to give him a super creepy deep voice and evil glowing eyes.

Not yet for sale

(Seriously, listen to his voice) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Zvs6bIjpw
http://www.akinrobotics.com/eng/akinsoft-insansi-robot-akinci2.php

Serena (Iran: Tehran University)

The 3rd generation of Serena will be able to walk faster and also recognize faces, objects, words and sentences with appropriate reactions.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/iran-humanoid-robot-surena-2-walks-stands-on-one-leg

Baxter (US: Rethink Robotics)

Interactive production robot. Requires no programming; It can be manually "trained". The face indicates whether it is understanding a task or confused

Available for only $25,000

http://www.rethinkrobotics.com/baxter/

PR2 (Willow Garage)

PR2 is a robot platform that was made semi-famous by a video demonstrating it folding clothes. Labs all over are developing more applications for it.

Folding clothes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy5g33S0Gzo
Coffee run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d0cE46XNAM

Roboray (Samsung)

Roboray can now walk but other features are still in development.

http://www.gizmag.com/samsung-humanoid-robot-roboray/24551/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYmhY-rUFXQ

NASH (China: NTU)

China's robot, Nash, can walk and understand simple commands. They claim they'll have one on the market within 5 years.

http://travel.cnn.com/singapore/play/meet-nash-singapores-first-humanoid-robot-and-future-maid-rich-526984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrJSOJbzxmU

NEXTAGE (Japan: Kawanda Industries)

Another production robot that can be easily trained to perform many tasks. Available for $87,000

http://nextage.kawada.jp/en/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke8yFtr9FAE

HRP (Japan: Kawanda Industries)

(HRP 4C)

(HRP 4)

One of the farthest along in development, next to ASIMO. The human-like HRP 4C is designed to entertain but the real goal of the HRP is for human assistance, especially hard labor applications like construction.

Kawada will be selling the HRP4 to research facilities in January for only $300,000.

http://global.kawada.jp/mechatronics/hrp4.html

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Part II, Humanoid robots in development for disaster response: http://imgur.com/gallery/mxcOn
Part III, Miscellaneous weird robots that do cool stuff: http://imgur.com/gallery/VGzuK