Paolo Interviewed

Paolo Pirjanen, our Chief Scientist, was interviewed by Robotics Online.

A little practicality:

What are some examples of products that incorporate technology from Evolution?

The Sony AIBO incorporates ViPR, our visual pattern recognition technology, for autonomously finding and returning to its charging station using its camera. It also reliably recognizes flash cards that are used to command the robot to do things such as dancing, playing, and following you around.

e-Vac, the robotic vacuum cleaner from Sharper Image has our intelligent navigation software for sweeping floors and avoiding obstacles and stairs. The impressive part of that navigation software is that we implemented it on a low-end 8-bit PIC with just 32 Kilobyte of memory and 40MHz clock speed.

And a little vision:

What can we expect in the near future for robots and intelligent devices in your sector?

Many experts agree that robotics today is at the same stage as the PC market was in the seventies. It is only a matter of time before we see a major explosion of this emerging market. That anticipated market explosion depends on, among other things, market interest, viable applications/products, and enabling technologies. The market interest is growing. Over the last two to three years more than two million consumer robots have been sold and the UN World Robotics Report projects that the number will increase to more than 7 million domestic robots in 2007. Robotic vacuuming and floor care products in general seem to constitute the current killer application for consumer robotics. But with the availability of enabling technologies that is soon to change. With the ability to autonomously localize, recognize, navigate, and interact the robots of the future will be much more intelligent and useful. Most major consumer electronics companies realize the opportunity that these market and technology conditions present and they are working hard to come up with the next killer application. Evolution Robotics and other technology companies are working hard to provide the next enabling technologies and standards for the robots of today and tomorrow. Soon we will witness a slew of new robotic products in the market which will change the way we live, work, and play. It is only a matter of time.

Posted by jjwiseman at February 16, 2005 01:12 PM