| 1. Tech
Works Studios Inc has built a SUPER humanoid which will be
installed in a museum in the Netherlands. It cost about
$200,000. It has about 36 DOF. It will be covered with
silicone skin when completed and will appear to speak phonetically.
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2. Hitachi has released a new mobile robot called the
Emiew (Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as
Workmate). They claim it is the fastest robot to date. It
moves on wheels at 6 Km/hr (3.7 mi/hr) making it about twice as fast
as Asimo. It stands 1.3 m tall (51 inches) and weighs 70 Kg (154
lb). It can talk and has a vocabulary of 100 words. Each
of its arms has 6 DOF. No info on availability or price.
Here are a few articles: Japan
Times, BBC
News, and OnRobo.
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3. Silicon Graphics Inc of Japan has released a cute little humanoid called Posy.
If you click on the picture (at the above link) you will get a lot more pictures. It
is supposed to be patterned after a flower girl. Here is an article
in Japanese. 
Posy
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4. Prof. Kazuhiro Kosuge of Tohoku
University in Japan has released his PBDR
(Partner Ballroom Dance Robot). This robot stands 165 cm
(5'5") tall and dances around on three wheels under her
dress. But she can't really be light on her feet at 100 Kg (220
lbs). Here is another
article.
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5. Florida Robotics offers
a life-size female entertainment robot called Ursula. Ursula is 5'10" tall and costs
$20,000 to purchase. She can also be rented. They have other robots available for
sale or rental from their robot lab.
Ursula image is 70K
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6. Sony has just revealed another
walking/dancing android called SDR-4X. This android is obviously intended to compete
against the HOAP-1. Here is a news article which
explains what the new android can do. According to Toshitada Doi, "This
robot will [sic] cost as much as one car, a luxury car." You can take that to mean it
will cost about $40,000 (the same as HOAP-1). Here is an article in German. 
Here is a link to SDR-4X
singing.
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3rd secret android project is revealed: 7. On
September 10, 2001 Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. announced their toy android. They
have build an 18" tall 13 pound android with 20 degrees of freedom. It is called
HOAP-1 (Humanoid Open Architecture Platform 1). It will go on sale in Japan on Sept.
17 for the surprisingly high price of $41,000 or 4.8 million Yen. Here is a story from Sept 10. And Sept 12
(pic). And here is another from Sept
14.
 Hoap-1
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8. Sony has built a small WALKING android which they call SDR-3X. It
stands about 20 inches tall and is about 9 inches wide and 6 inches deep. The first press release was
on November 21, 2000. Another article came out in Infoworld.
Four of these androids were on display at Robodex 2000 in Yokohama the weekend
of (11/24/00 - 11/26/00). 
16KB
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9.Nao is a small
humanoid offered by Aldebaran Robotics of Paris, France.
Nao is 55 cm (22 inches) tall and has 23
degrees of freedom. It can walk, and
talk with a speech synthesizer, and can recognize spoken words.
It is WiFi enabled. Aldebaran Robotics was founded by Bruno
Maisonnier (CEO) in 2005 and they have a
staff of 12. This humanoid will be
offered for sale in the summer of 2007. Estimated price is $3000 - $3500. (* NEW *)
Nao
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10. Choromet (also
known as HRP-2m) is a small humanoid offered by Moving Eye and General Robotics of Japan.
This humanoid stands 35 cm (14 inches) tall
and weighs 1.5 Kg. Its has 20 degrees
of freedom and can walk
and stand up by itself. The price
is 500,000 Yen or about $4,250. (* NEW *)
More
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11. Kyosho of Japan
is offering a small humanoid called Manoi AT01 for
150,000 Yen or about $1300. This humanoid
stands 34 cm (13.3 inches) tall and weighs about 1.4 Kg.
This robot is sold in kit form with over 200
screws and a 100 page manual. It has 18
or 20 degrees of freedom and is capable of walking and waving its
arms. (* NEW *)
More
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12. Kyoto University
and Tomotaka Takahashi have build a small humanoid called Chroino. It is about 35
cm tall and
weighs about 1 Kg. It has a very
human-like walking action. It has 24
degrees of freedom. It is not
currently for sale. (* NEW *)
More
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13. The Aoyama Gakuin
University in Tokyo Japan has several small android projects. They have MK3, MK4, and MK5. All the pages are in
Japanese so I can't get much info, but MK4 appears to be about 14" tall and 10"
wide.
MK4
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14. A new Canadian company called Dr.
Robot has developed a small android called Dr. Robot which can be used either for
enetertainment or as a home security system. This android can walk and stands about 60 cm
tall. It will be offered in May of 2003 for $1500 - $3000 each. The company is located in
Markham, Ontario, Canada.
Dr. Robot
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15. SEGA has
also joined the fun! Here is a news release
which shows their new toy androids.
21KB
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16. Sony
announced the Aibo2 on October 12, 2000. This Aibo went on sale in Japan on November
16, 2000 for 150,000 yen. Actually there are a lot of robot dogs available
now. Sony has just announced that they
will DISCONTINUE Aibo soon. Sony has sold over 150,000
robot dogs since their introduction in 1999. US Aibo link.
 Aibo2
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17. There is now a robot cat
called Necoro to compete with Aibo. It was introduced in 10/16/2001. The cost is
185,000 yen ($1530). It is built by Omron
and comes complete with FUR. Here are a couple more articles.
(1)
(2)
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18. Kokaro, a subsidiary of Sanrio of Japan has produced a talking humanoid robot
which they call S-Doll. It can understand speech and conduct a conversation with a human.
It will sell for 50 - 100 million yen.
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19. A Utah company called Sarcos also
offers entertainment androids. They offer anthropomorphic robots which
appear to be normal human size. No pricing information is available. This
probably means that if you have to ask, you can't afford it. Here is a picture
of one.  Image is 103K
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20. Mytech is an
entertainment robot company which was founded by Mineo Akiyama in June
of 1997 and is located in Tokyo, Japan. They offer a cute robot
which can present a recorded message for you while moving its head,
arms, & mouth. It stands about 23" (60 cm) tall. They
have several
movies of their robots in action. Their robots are called MechaRobo.
(* NEW 1/29/04 *)
MechaRobos
Their site has both English
and Japanese pages.
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21. A German company called Mabotic
Robotics and Automation is now offering two or three entertainment
robots. The best
one seems to be SAM. This robot has 43 DOF. (* NEW *)
<= SAM
Mabotic Robotics & Automation also offers a robot
called H10 which has good 5 fingered hands which can do actual work.
The different face styles all have animated eyes and speech synchronized
with lip movements.(* NEW *)
<= H10
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22. Here is a fun robot
called DAVE - for dynamic animatronic vehicular entity. This
robot is designed to mimick the (remote) operator's movements.
DAVE was built by a team of seven designers/engineers in London. The
leader is Mike Onslow. They have some videos which you can look at
here.
(* NEW *)
DAVE
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| 23. George York, president of YFX Studios sent me an
email about his company.
They build animatronic animals and insects. And now they are building
an animatronic
man. He is called Master Lee. They have a 3MB movie
of the head talking with facial expressions. And now he has a body!
George says he can move his hands and arms. Next they will try
to make him walk. 
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24. International
Robotics, NY, NY International Robotics has completely redone their website and it now
looks GREAT! They have numerous show robots which roll around and presumably deliver your taped messge
- such as the two shown below.
Pulsar
and
SCI-FI
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| 25. There is a new biggest and baddest fighter in town.
Its the 9 foot tall robot "Man vs Machine". Keith Lock
who is the promoter and executive producer of Man vs Machine sent me
some nice pictures of his robot.
Man vs Machine
Man vs Machine is a fighting robot which weighs in at
1002 pounds (455 Kg) They have a nice website to promote their
robot called ManVsMachine.
in the ring
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26. Thanks to our readers we know that Shunichi Mizuno, president of Cybot
Corp (Tokyo, Japan) built the life-sized animatronic Marilyn Monroe entertainment robot
shown below (left). Ron Leblanc sent another color photo of the face (below right). Sorry,
I have no URL for Cybot Corp.
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| 27.
Robosapien is a humanoid robot about a 14" tall which is now available from
www.TrendTimes.com.
Really walks (fast), turns, picks up, throws, dances,
and gives a mean Barney-Gumble style beltch. Fully programmable from
ergonomic remote control, has over 60 built-in
functions for fast and flexible movements. It will retail for about $100.
Perhaps you would like to buy a Robosapiens robot for your child for
Christmas. Version 2 is now available.
Its more capable and more fun!
Original
Version 2
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28. Aiko Trading Company is offering a remote controlled
robot called Dream
Force 1 RC. It seems to have lots of capabilities such as
picking up things and walking. It can also shoot BBs - no
kidding. Its a little expensive ($520), but looks like fun for
the kids.
Dream Force 1 RC
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| 29. Robos, a company
in Japan, is now offering a 90cm (36") tall robot called Kozoh.
It weighs 16 Kg
(35 pounds) and can operate for 1 hour on its battery. No indication of the price.
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30.Takara Toys of Japan has come up with a clever humanoid called FII-RII. The
cost is about $200. Once you connect the FII-RII to a PC via USB, you can control electric
appliances even from outside the home through Internet accessible PCs or cell phones.
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| 31. AIST (The
Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) in Japan has
announced a
therapeutic robot seal called Paro. It appears to be
about 18" (45 cm) long and is covered in white fur. It
responds to stroking. This toy will sell for $2500 -
$3000.
Paro the robot seal.
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32. Klitgaard
Design of Copenhagen Denmark is offering an entertainment robot
called K-bot. It is an attractive mobile robot with piercing
blue LED eyes. Designer Brian Johansen says they will soon be offering
the LEDs for sale as well. K-bot will rent for 100 - 150 Euros
per hour. 
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| 33. Bandai Co. Ltd in Japan has a
new toy robot called the "BN-7". It stands .68m or 27" tall and
weighs 20kg (44 lbs). It has image recognition capabilities and emotions. It can
understand speech and talk too - apparently in many languages. Here is an article in Japanese.
Here is the press release for
the BN-7 from March 18 (English version). This toy was
shown at the recent Robodex2002.  |
34. Another Florida company called Robots 2 Go offers Ralphie the Robot. Ralphie is 5'3" tall and
weighs 185 pounds. Ralphie is not very anthropomorphic. But, he can play a CD and
deliver your message in three languages; French, Spanish, and English.
Ralphie image is 38K |
| 35. A French entrepreneur by the name of Marc Reynaud sent me some
pictures of two entertainment robots that he has built. He calls them Birillo (left)
and Stratos (right). His company, called Robotika,
has offices in Luxor, Italy and Paris. Marc's email is info@birillo.com. 
23KB
19KB |
36. Kent Davis sent me an email about his entertainment robot company
called RoboMedia Inc. Here is a picture of one of
their robots. 
16KB |
| 37. Mike Mosieur sent me an email about his entertainment robot company
called Entertainment Technologie. He is located in Ocala, Florida. He is working on a web
site now. So his email is mmosieur@praxis.net. 
12KB
11KB |
38. I found another company called Robots 4 Fun. Here is a picture of one of
their robots.
12KB |
| 39. Walt Noon's company called Show Design builds theme park
animatronic animals/monsters/figures. Here is a picture of one of their robots.
Image is 29KB |
40. Jules Bamberger sent me an email about his entertainment robot company
called Atlas
Interactive Robotics. They build remotely controlled robots which can move around and
converse with the audience or your customers. The unseen operator can talk to the audience
via the radio link in the robot. 
Image is 25KB |
| 41. Mannetron offers two robots called
Ilano & Max which are very
anthropomorphic. The one shown below is called Ilano. It is a domestic robot
for the home market only. 
27KB |
42. Robot
Entertainment has a really fancy website. They offer various robots such as the one
shown below. They will construct specialty robots per your needs.
9KB. |
| 43. Probotics America
has an excellent website too. They build robots for safety, education, and entertainment.
They will also construct specialty robots per your needs. 
15KB
12KB |
44. Life
Formations has an excellent website. They offer a wide variety of animatronic
figures (such as the one shown below). Check out their fabulous gallery. They also will construct
specialty robots per your needs.  17KB. |
| 45. Mark Wilde sent me an email about Tarobots International. They build entertainment
robots in the form of mobile boxers in which the customer rides INSIDE the boxer and slugs
it out with another similarly attired boxer. It sounds like a lot of fun! 
13KB
11KB |
46. I also received an email about a French site called L'Atelier Des Robots. Below is a picture
of one of their robots called Leon. Check them out even if you can't read French!
8KB |
| 47. Jeff Leininger of Robotic
Entertainers Inc sent me an email about his company. They have robot costumes up to 10
feet tall (3m) which you can walk around in a scare the daylights out of people. Check
this out: 
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48. NEC has gotten into the act now. They are offering a small personal
companion robot called the R100. It can talk
and see with 2 CCD cameras and roll around on its wheels. It can also recognize spoken
commands!  R100
49. NEC has also built a small personal robot which they call PaPeRo. Here is the press release. PaPeRo
details are here.
PaPeRo can understand 650 phrases and can speak 3000.
 44KB
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| 50. Matt Brady sent me an email about his company called The Mascot Organization. They have various
robots available to promote your company. Shown below is ROM.
ROM - 18KB |
51. Hans Rosenfeld sent me an email about his company called Tools Musical Fantasy Adventure. They have various
robots available for promotions. Shown below is Mr. Ellero.  Mr. Ellero - 28KB
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| 52. I received an email from Eric Boura. His company which was called Effix New Marketing has gone out of business.
Sorry, to see you go. Hope you will start another company soon.  SENSALL
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53. A Korean company call Dajin System Company Ltd has built a
14" tall android toy called Lucy. It
weighs 1.2 kg and has 16 DOF. They started their project in November of 1999.
Lucy - 17KB |
| 54. Viva Robotics is a
company located in Virginia just outside Washington DC. They offer promotional robots such
as the one shown below.  Viva robot - 15KB
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55. Media
Integration and Communication Research Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan has introduced a 3
foot tall entertainment robot. It was seen for the first time at Robodex2000. Its called
Robovie.  Robovie - 35KB
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| 56. Jose Luis Martinez sent
me an email about his creation called Seguritron. He has developed Seguritron over several
years and has really produced a very impressive robot. Its arms and body move and it can
talk and answer questions. His
site has lots of information. He has a whole page of
pictures and another page of details of
the construction of the robot. 
51KB.
Is this the robot from "Short Circuit"? |
57. Claudia from Tecnoefectos in
Argentina emailed me about their company. They produce several different
versions of walking and talking robots. They can move their arms and hands and talk
(deliver your promotional message).
 38KB |
| 58. Another Florida company called the Sally Corporation also offers entertainment robots.
Here is a new picture of "Nazeer" their featured storyteller in
their latest interactive
dark ride -- The Challenge of Tutankhamon -- which opened this past
summer in Brussels. It looks GREAT!
Animatronic Nazeer
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59. This robot is called "Pb-BZ007" and is built by Daihen Corporation. The robot was shown at
the recent Osaka Roboexpo. It appears that the Daihen Mechtronics division built it,
but it doesn't seem to be accessable from the outside world. Thanks to Eric and Hiro
for this information.  |
| 60. Steve Watt sent me an email about his entertainment robot company
called Robot Promotions Inc. They have
two robots available called Peeper and Quadracon.  Quadracon (left)
and Peeper (right). |
61. The Martial Arts Robot is an entertainment robot built by
Faustex Systems Corp. This
robot, called the Hyperkinetic
Humanoid (H2) Robot , has 22 degrees of freedom. It is mounted on a mechanical
frame which controls its actions. It is available for rent at about $500 or for purchase
at about $50,000. This organization is located in Austin, Texas.
H2 image is 116K |
| 62. Advance Robot Promotions
of London, England offers two promotional robots. The smaller of the two, called GEM , appears to be a knock-off of
R2D2. The other, called Electra, is billed as "Earth's most beautiful
robot". Unfortunately, it appears to be a person wearing a shiny gold
plastic costume (recently identified as Pam Sinclair).
Electra and Gem
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63. Hasbro in now offering an Interactive
R2D2 for kids (thanks Tom Sheer).for $100 - $150. It has 40
voice commands and I'm sure kids will enjoy it a lot. Here
for $110. (* New 03/09/2006 *)
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| 64. A company in Kansas City called Main Street Entertainment offers Ozzie the Robot who
looks a lot like Ralphie. Ozzie is 5'9" tall but not very anthropomorphic. He has a
built-in VCR which can play your video on his chest.
Ozzie (15KB) |
65. Heimo
is a really big robot / animatronic entertainment company in
Jagsthausen, Germany. They build all kinds of characters including
pirates, fantasy figures, dinosaurs, and any custom figure you
want.
Pirates
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| 66. CreatureBot
is located in Korea. They are building artificially intelligent
beings. Their first offering is called Alpha. Alpha can
carry on a real conversation with a real person. They have a
video of Alpha being questioned here.
Donald Dixon is president of CreatureBot.
Alpha
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67. ZMP Inc of Japan
has just announced a new walking android called Nuvo.
It stands 39cm tall and weighs 2.5 Kg. It is controlled by a
mobile phone. It can get to its feet again if it falls down - a
lot easier said than done! ZMP is also involved in producing the
PINO robot from Kitano
Symbiotic Systems.
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68. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is not about to let Sony outdo them! They
have built robot fish! Shown below is a fish that became extinct about 500 million years
ago. Mitsubishi has brought it back to life. Its battery operated and swimming in a tank
in Yokohama, Japan. They have also built a coelacanth (pronounced seal-a-canth) and even a
robot cat to compete directly against Sony's dog. They plan to build lots of extinct
species for museums and aquariums. It seems they have found a new line of
business. Perhaps they will build a new Jurassic Park (which I tried to do in
1985). 
Sea Bream (49KB).
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69. Svedka Vodka has introduced a
female humanoid robot called Svedka to help sell their Vodka.
They are currently repainting the parts but soon it will be on display
again.
Svedka
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70. The
Xi'an Superman
Sculpture Research Council specializes in building Dopplegangers.
They have built many including one if its founder Zou Ren Ti (show
below). They are located in the city of Xi'an in the province
of Shaanxi. This is the same city where the famous
Terracotta
Army is located. The androids can move their heads and speak.
Zou Ren Ti |
71. Hanson Robotics, located in Richardson, Texas,
builds very life-like android heads with up to 60 muscle actions. David
Hanson's best known work is his head of Einstein, shown below.
Image
ownership disputed |
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72. Kumotek is located in Lewisville, Texas.
They design, build and sell robots under the name of
Roboporium.
The owner, Matt Fischer also works on projects with Hanson Robotics.
KHR-1HV (19 DOF) |
73. Self Defense
Technologies Inc., located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, has
developed a boxing android which you can program with many different
sequences of punches. Luther Trawick (757-235-9073) has
developed this robot over a period of 16 years. This business
is for sale. Please contact Luther if you are interested.
Android boxer. |
