EeeBot Android Robot Being Planned By ASUS, Will Take Over The World Like Its Eee Bre

With the catchiness of the name EeeBot, I'm surprised it's taken us this long to hear whispers of an ASUS robot.

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ASUS will be working alongside the Taiwanese government to help spread the word on the benefits of Android, which the EeeBot would run on. ASUS has already proved its worth when developing low-cost products in its Eee range, but the cost of the robot will be subsidized by selling other services, such as apps, for it.

The potential of this project is huge—ASUS is the perfect hardware manufacturer to get involved in this, and it'd help breed a real apps ecosystem around the robot, which would hopefully benefit the phone OS flavor of Android too. Human-robot interaction, voice control, movement and navigation are all expected of these EeeBots, but with any luck the head honchos at ASUS have actually watched Battlestar Galactica before so we won't find ourselves in a similar situation.

Don't start putting aside money just yet for one of these EeeBots, as ASUS has already said it will take at least two years just to get to the stage of trialling the Eeebots. That's around enough time to start scoping out other planets to live on, just in case.

Kat Hannaford,
the author of this post
gizmodo.com.

 

Asustek Computer plans to develop an educational robot for kids called the EeeBot along with software and services as part of several technology projects sponsored by the Taiwan government.

The goal is to build an affordable robot able to interact with children, according to description of the project outlined on a government Web site. Asustek will work on hardware and software as part of the project.

Asustek is one of Taiwan's biggest computer makers and pioneered the netbook movement with its Eee PC. The company has taken the name recognition around the Eee brand to several other devices, including the Eee Box and Eee Keyboard.

The EeeBot project will focus on building content and services around the robot to subsidize the cost of the hardware and make them more affordable to families. Technologies involved in the project include human robot interaction (HRI), voice and visual technologies, as well as positioning and navigation, in addition to software and other hardware.

Once the project plan has been finalized, Asustek expects it to take around two years to put a product into trial production, and four years the EeeBot program will reach yearly output value of NT$5 billion.

Asustek could not immediately be reached for comment.

Dan Nystedt,
IDG News Service
Dec 16, 2009 10:00 pm