I am currently at the Intelligent Robots ad Systems Conference in St. Louis. Here are some observations:
- Everybody seems to be trying to buy a Vicon, motion tracking system. In case you don't know, this is a system that uses high speed IR cameras to track moving objects to within 1 mm accuracy and can compute position and orientation up to 1000 times/sec. Its like a really fast, really accurate indoor GPS systems. It is also used alot in the biomedical, video game and movie industries. Within 3 hours of arriving here at IROS, I met 3 colleagues from other institutions who were in the process of planing orders. Seems like we're practically trend setters. Prof. Bishop and I got the idea to buy one, way back in early 2008.
2. Hokuyo came out with a new scanning laser range finder that retains the s
lim form factor of the URG (about 2" X 2" X 2"). However this one gets both power and data through the USB connection, eliminating the need for a separate power supply. Oh yeah, it is half the price too! (1200 USD vs 2500)
3. I got the chance to meet Nao, the new small humanoid robot from Alderbaran Robotics. It is quite cool, and at 10,000 USD / unit it is no toy. So far their primary market is the RoboCup Universities that are participating in the humanoid league.
http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/eng/Nao.php
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