Hanson Robotics

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I must say it was an awesome day! Not only did waziwazi get to be at the announcement of the $30,000,000 robot competition (ok, plus space launch), but we got to see what we feel will be one of the most anticipated consumer robots ever. Hanson Robotics demo'd their Zeno robot. The breadth of expressions Zeno is capable of is quite awesome.. more so given the adorable Zeno is still 2 years away from production. Hanson Robotics have really done something special here. We'll bring you more coverage of Zeno and some detailed specs in the coming days. See more robot videos here. Stick around!

Here's a somewhat old video on Hanson Robotics:

The official website of Zeno, Hanson Robotics' humanoid robot is now up at Zenosworld. According to the official blog, prototype versions of Zeno will be sold for $15000 while the consumer versions due in about 2 years will cost between $200 and $1000. [Edit: price information yet to be determined]. Hanson Robotics are thinking beyond personal robotics and have developed a story about Zeno that could make him a star of TV or film. Set in the year 2027, "the Zeno character is an intelligent robot child, enrolled in an 'Inventing Academy'—a school where little robots learn to invent to make the world a better place. Though Zeno is smart, he’s emotionally just a kid, and must learn how to manage his precocious powers and to get along with the other robot kids, or RoboKind. When Zeno discovers that evil professor Blanc has secretly infected students with a corrupting virus ... continued

This is a great year for the consumer robotics industry in the US. iRobot just introduced their new Roomba 500 series and next month Ugobe and Tomy Takara will begin shipping their Pleo and i-SOBOT robots respectively. Today, PC Mag is reporting that Hanson Robotics are about to unveil one of their first entries into the personal robotics market, a 17"-tall humanoid robot called Zeno. Part of the Robokind line of personal interactive robots, Zeno is a bipedal robot modeled like the cartoon character Astroboy. Hanson Robotics has designed the animated head which features 12 motors while the body has been designed by Robo-Garage's Tomotaka Takahashi who we interviewed recently. ... continued