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’s successful interactive robot dog, AIBO.
“It’s more than a toy, but it’s purpose is as an entertainment robot,” says Rick Clancy of Sony, New Jersey. “It dances for one thing, and if it takes a fall, it can get back up again. It looks pretty cool.”
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. “It’s also got a camera and image recognition capability, so it can recognise a coloured ball and kick it towards a goal,” 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. “At this stage, it’s a prototype,” says Silvia Shin of Sony Europe in Berlin. “What exactly you’d do with it, to be honest, I don’t know.”
