Autonomous People-Moving Bots Coming to Rome

Posted 28 Jan 2009 at 01:48 UTC by steve

French robotics company, robosoft, has unveiled a new prototype of their fully autonomous passenger transportation system called robuRIDE. The robuRIDE prototype was demonstrated at a recent technical meeting on autonomous transportation. The robuRIDE looks surprisingly low-tech, something like a big white box made out of surplus mobile home parts sitting on a large flatbed dolly. But while it may not score high marks for industrial design, it's already proven itself as an autonomous people-mover. A previous version of the robuRIDE is already in service at Vulcania Park and Simserhof Fort in France. The new prototype can move more than twice as with a top speed of 25 km/h. If all goes well, you can expect to see robuRIDEs zipping around the parking lot of the Rome Exhibition Center in Italy soon. For more see the robosoft press release (PDF format).