2022 BRN Discussion, page-3080

The hand-drawn robot also looks very similar to the Nao robot which was introduced by Aldebaran Robotics. Nao had several sensors including tactile and was able to perform facial detection and voice recognition with multiple cameras and microphones. Nao was able to communicate with people and a development kit was available for people to expand on Nao's capabilities. There was a very interesting video with Nao posted on YouTube back in 2008.

Since then Aldebaran Robotics had gone through some internal turmoil and was subsequently acquired by Softbank, a Japanese company. Unfortunately, through budget cuts, Nao was no longer available and now Softbank only sells Pepper, a spiritual successor to now that was introduced back in 2014.

The original Nao did not quite sport the same blue highlights shared by robot Ken until a later version and there were two different colors available, red and blue. I wish I was able to acquire one back when they were available, but unfortunately, my budget did not allow for me to splurge on such a wonderful toy which went for around USD 6000.00 (at a 25% discount) back in 2014.

I can only imagine how much more advanced Nao (or even Pepper) could be with the addition of on-chip learning capabilities added to its sensors. It's too bad Aldebaran and Brainchip did not cross paths in time.