Sony SDR-4X Biped

Posted 14 Aug 2002 at 14:01 UTC by steve

Sony has announced a new biped robot that will join the AIBO in Sony's line of consumer robots. The SDR-4X is 50cm tall, weighs 6.5kg, and uses a pair of 64-bit processors. It has speech recognition, speech synthesis, stereo CCD vision sensors to provide face recognition and distance measuring capabilities. It can stand on one leg, get up if it falls, navigate around obstacles and climb stairs. No pricing or ship date is set yet. A more detailed article can be found on the Sony Australia site.

Interesting..., posted 14 Aug 2002 at 16:43 UTC by jeffkoenig » (Master)

However, it seems they are "announcing the development of a prototype". Did I miss a release date? They mention that it "will be shown" March 28 through 31, 2002. Does anyone know if it was shown?

Seven microphones in the head? Wow...it would probably take a dedicated DSP just to do the phase calculations for those.

This looks incredibly cool, and incredibly unaffordable...sniff...

Sony humanoid, posted 14 Aug 2002 at 17:35 UTC by motters » (Master)

Yes it was demoed at Robodex 2002 earlier in the year. It looks like a very nice piece of engineering, but I bet its absurdly expensive.

This is a japanese site, but there are some good videos showing the robot's abilities http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/2002/0320/sony.htm

I bet in ten years time you will be able to buy this sort of thing in a toyshop.

- Bob

old news but ..., posted 14 Aug 2002 at 18:04 UTC by steve » (Master)

yeah, the news is a few months old but I think we didn't have any good links to photos or specs last time I posted about it, so when I ran across the specs in the press release I had to post it...

If I run across anything newer that has info on the price or a release date, I'll post another update.

Mortgage time?, posted 14 Aug 2002 at 19:26 UTC by robodave » (Journeyer)

Other reports I'd seen estimate price for the SDR-4X in the $30-$40K range. Hmm, buy a new car... buy a robot... decisions, decisions... This is a really cool robot, have watched various videos of it's preformance and that of it's predecessor the SDR-3X. Robodex in Japan had this little guy demoing, and a couple other Japanese get togethers, but no demo here yet. I want one, but I just don't have that kind cash laying about to try it. Maybe something closer to people sized?

But how far can it walk?, posted 14 Aug 2002 at 20:41 UTC by steve » (Master)

Can walk from LA to Vegas? Maybe we should enter it in the DARPA Grand Challenge? :-)

Walking to Las Vegas, posted 15 Aug 2002 at 19:23 UTC by robodave » (Journeyer)

I don't know, is the SDR-4X faster than the Nomad? Would Asimo walk faster? Would a full sized GOAT work? Or would SARGE work best? It's all so confusing... Just give me the million, I'll build one.

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