Zeno R25 , the first social robot at an affordable price

 Created by the American Society RoboKind the Zeno R25 is a humanoid robot
 bristling with sensors and artificial intelligence that allows it to interact
 with humans by detecting and reproducing their emotions. He can play
 with small , provide computer courses or help autistic children .
Humanoid robots have made ​​considerable progress in recent
 years. Advances in artificial intelligence and components
 (Processors, various sensors , touch technology , camera ) allowed
 develop particularly advanced models . These include
 the famous robot
 Asimo designed by Honda or the sympathetic Nao launched in 2008 by the company
 French Aldebaran Robotics . However, these robots are still expensive
 and that they are destined mostly to be used for research
 university , or as a technological showcase for large companies
 taken .
 But a newcomer intends to change all that. Zeno R25 is its
 name, is a small humanoid robot presented as the first social robot
 affordable. Its designer, the American company RoboKind , it has its
 years of experience in robotics and artificial intelligence.
 Derived from a model for universities, the Zeno R25 also wants evolved
 while being much more affordable .
 Indeed, while its big brother, the Zeno R50 , costs € 11,800 , Zeno R25 will be sold "only" € 2000 .
 Although this is still a substantial sum , it is actually well below the usual rates
 for this kind of robot. In comparison , the Nao robot costs about € 12,000 .
"It is for everyone, programmers, robotics enthusiasts , children and family," says RoboKind .
 Faced with children, Zeno R25 can tell stories , read books , dance to the music. It may
 turn into teacher to teach a foreign language to elementary school lessons and answer a
 issue by searching the Internet. But it can also provide computer training to
 university students . RoboKind has also developed a therapy module for children with autism .
 Indeed, thanks to its set of facial expressions, Zeno R25 can help them to better interpret the emotions
 improve their social skills.
 To achieve such performance, the Zeno R25 features a system on a chip Texas Instruments OMAP
 4460 Double heart , with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It has Wi -Fi, Ethernet, of
 two USB ports, an HDMI port and an NFC chip for contactless data transfer.
 And it is far from everything! From its 56 cm, the Zeno R25 is bristling with sensors ( gyroscope, accelerometer,
 compass , infrared ) and 9 touch zones distributed over its entire skeleton . He can see people and
 objects through a camera (5 megapixels) lodged in his right eye, hear with 8 microphones and talk to
 through a loudspeaker.
On his chest, a 2.4 inch LCD touch screen is used to access the functions and distribute content . the robot
 can move through engine 21 which give it 15 degrees of freedom. The face alone has 5 degrees of
 freedom that allow Zeno R25 to take multiple facial expressions.
 The software part is based on the Ubuntu Linux distribution and artificial intelligence platform called Compu
 Passion that RoboKind has developed for his robot can detect and imitate emotions. A series of algo-
 rithms allow Zeno R25 to distinguish colors , movements, recognize faces and read
 QR codes. All development tools ( Java, C ++) and control of this robot are open source to encourage the
 community of researchers, developers and hobbyists to develop it .
 To complete this project , RoboKind launched a fundraising platform via crowdfunding kick-
 Choke, but the money collected was insufficient to make this happen. Robokind hope still able
 deliver the first copies of Zeno R25 in 2014.