Romeo

Romeo is a project led by the French Cap Digital business cluster and funded by the Ile-de-France region, the General Directorate for Competitiveness, Industry and Services (DGCIS ex DGE) and the City of Paris. This 10 million Euros project is subsidized up to 4.9 millions.

The project's objective is to develop a humanoid robot that can act as a comprehensive assistant for persons suffering from loss of autonomy.

With this target in mind, the robot has to be able to interact with most familiar objects/movements (open and close a door, grasp a glass, a bottle, a bunch of keys…).

But it will also have to assist people who need to move around their home and be able to help them should they fall on the ground.

Beyond its physical abilities, Romeo has to come with a very “human-friendly” interface, voice and gestures being the principal means of communication with the robot. It will have to understand what is said to him, carry out simple talks and even feel the intentions and emotions of its interlocutor in order to deduce the actions it has to realize.

A first humanoid robot prototype, from 1.20 m to 1.50 m high, will be prototyped before the end of 2010. In autumn 2011 - a few months before the end of the project - a second prototype will be delivered to be used and tested by actual users suffering from loss of autonomy. They will be selected amongst the patients of the Vision Institute. On the ground of Romeo’s project learnings, Aldebaran intends to develop a product which could be on the market by 2015.

Goal

End of 2011: functional prototype of the personal assistant robot.