Good Evening !
I've been holding myself back from blogging since I had loads of work to focus on finishing before the course ends.. yet I picked today ( Smart Computer Graphics Final night ) to post a new one :D !!
so Nao visited our collage weeks ago to let students get the chance to meet this expensive lil robot and understand how he functions. I tried to play with him and I would like to post a little review about my experience and opinion ..
apparently the cuteness side was well taken care off ! LOL
the cute robot is about half meter long and as written on the web weighs 4.3 kg .
he is a little bit heavy compared to his tiny body and that was demonstrated when I handed him to a visiting teacher and he almost dropped him surprisingly because of his unexpected weight !
I think it is rational to have such a heavy weight when you think of all the possible motors and metalic parts inside; However, Nao can't stand to support his weight for long periods of time and always takes a similar pose to the one shown in the picture to relax his motors !
The funny thing tho is that once his heat started to raisen he clearly says it " MOTOR IS HOT.. MOTOR IS HOT" and when we didn't pay attention to that he simply fainted to the ground haha !!
As for the software used, a drag and drop based software comes with the purchase of Nao called Choregraphe
all you have to do is plan the moves you want him to do and connect the network of movements logically ! a demo is also provided on the side of the program
I think he is a good example to introduce young students to robotics. His applications are compatible with windows and are user friendly and the connectivity options provided are wireless or Ethernet which both are supported and used widely. Nao along many other simple robots allow users to be creative in my point of view, because you always get excited to watch his adorable reactions and he pushes you to do more in order to get a unique performance against other Nao users !
As for more advanced IT specialists I don't think he's that interesting because I honestly got bored soon after playing along with his limited functionality ! :/ but it all depends on setting a good purpose instead of using him aimlessly.
Here's more of what he can do :
Nao:" I want to come with you" -- holds your hand and follows your pull direction :D isn't he cute ?
standing pose before the ball play where he recognizes the color of the ball and walks after it
and many other options like changing the eyes and ears color, waving, dancing, saying given words by the programmer, yawning ..etc
we really had fun exploring this lil guy and we hope the collage considers buying one for the future :) hope ASIMO visits next lol
Now offfff to study ~! wish me luck .
