A Nao Humanoid Robot was the star of the Graham Norton Television show despite sharing the bill with worldwide celebrity actors including Bafta winner Gary Oldman, Oscars-nominee Toni Collette, and Shaun of the Dead start Nick Frost.
Active Robots own Nao robot had the host and the three stars of the big screen in stitches when it performed the hit Gangnam Style dance on the BBC show, after entertaining the audience with a demonstration of its amazing abilities, including standing up, sitting down, and walking with Norton. The stars watched the robot perform in open-mouthed wonder.
The Nao Robot drew gasps from the crowd with its human features and life-like movements, especially when Norton asked to take its hand, just like a small child.
Before the Robot was revealed on stage, Norton warns parents in the audience and those watching at home, that their children would want a robot of their own once they saw it perform.
Nick Frost said he could not believe what he was seeing, whilst Norton called it ‘cool’ and ‘adorable’. Hearts melted when the robot slipped on the shiny table and asked to be helped back up, and there were roars of laughter from the audience when it said ‘no’ after being asked by Norton to follow him. It’s amazing how human emotion can be pulled from a piece of technology.
The appearance gave the world a glimpse of the robotic technology that is now available and is being used to create humanoid robots such as our own Robot featured on the show.
This Aldebaran Robotics Nao H25 robot has complex software embedded in it to enable it to recognise objects, faces, and voices, and it has a body boasting 25 degrees of freedom that means its movements are amazingly life-like. It is 57cm tall and has a huge list of features including eight pressure sensors, nine tactile sensors, four microphones, and two cameras.
What did you think of Nao on the Graham Norton show?
Nao Robot on Graham Norton
