Basically, Romeo is a robot that can help people who have the basic mobility or dexterity to handle daily functions. He can be used to open doors, fetch objects, twist open jars, and so on. He is also designed to understand basic human speech, comprehending what the owner wants based on voice commands. That’s the only way he’d really work in a real world setting anyhow.

You might remember Aldebaran for its Nao robot, but I imagine the larger Romeo robot will cost more than Nao’s $16,000. The video embedded below has the new creeperbot greeting the world, looking forward to 2012 when he can “soon be able to join and work with you.”

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Well, at least its developers are. Aldebaran Robotics (which I coincidentally read initially as Alderaan Robotics) wants to push the Nao Robot to be able to “traverse rocky roads.” Nao has already shown that he can kick around a soccer ball, but going through uneven terrain in a bipedal fashion might be pretty tough.

Naturally, it’s easy to think that the motivation for the Japan-based firm to take on this project comes by way of the recent Sendai earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. Instead of sending human beings into more dangerous situations, even if it is to rescue other human beings, they can send in robots like Nao instead.

Nao might not be strong enough to lift up heavy rocks, but if the $16,000 USD robot can get through the uneven terrain, deliver food and water, and report back with whether he has found more survivors, that’s a huge step forward (no pun intended) for rescue missions in disaster situations.

[UberGizmo via Neuro Informatik]

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