Category: Service Robotics

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NAO Robotics SA

Following the recent news that French robotics company Aldebaran has entered judicial liquidation, RobotLAB has issued a press release to reassure customers and partners of continued support for NAO and Pepper robots. A new company, NAO Robotics SA, is being formed to acquire Aldebaran’s intellectual property and engineering team. Development on the next-generation NAO V7 has already resumed. RobotLAB, a long-time NAO partner since 2009, remains fully operational with robots, parts, and support services in stock. With over 6,500 NAO robots deployed, the company continues to provide training, repairs, and educational tools, including the recently launched NAO AI Edition with ChatGPT integration. RobotLAB emphasized there will be no disruption for current customers and views this transition as a new beginning for the NAO platform.

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Suzuki Presents its Moqba

“On June 5, 2025, Suzuki made headlines in the robotics and mobility sector by launching the Moqba, a $3,000 four-legged transport robot designed to revolutionize urban commuting, accessibility, and logistics.” (The Jurnals, 6 June 2025) This was reported by The Jurnals in the article “Suzuki’s Moqba Unleashed: A $3,000 Robot Dog Redefining Urban Mobility” on June 6, 2025. “The Moqba’s sleek design features a white-and-black color scheme, a futuristic aesthetic, and a saddle-like seat for riders, blending practicality with a forward-thinking vision. Its four-legged structure, inspired by robots like Spot, allows it to navigate varied terrain, making it a versatile tool for both individual transport and commercial applications. With a top speed of 20 mph (32 km/h) and a range of up to 50 miles (80 km) on a single charge, the Moqba is well-suited for urban environments, where short, efficient trips are the norm.” (The Jurnals, 6 June 2025) The device looks solid and ready for use. However, it is probably not suitable for people taller than 180 cm. It is also unlikely to be suitable for physically disabled people. For everyone else, it could be an interesting way to get around (Image: ChatGPT/4o Image).

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The Aldebaran Story Comes to an End

On June 2, 2025, Aldebaran announced the end of the “Aldebaran Story” in a video. The video recounts the history of the company. Founded in 2005 by Bruno Maissonier of France, NAO, one of the best-known social robots to date, was launched the following year. The company has sold 20,000 units, primarily to universities and research institutes. These institutions then developed applications for children and the elderly. In 2012, SoftBank invested in the company so that Pepper could be built. Seventeen thousand units were produced. They sold out in 2024. Once again, researchers and developers created numerous applications for Pepper. In 2021, the United Robotics Group, backed by the RAG Foundation, invested in the company and moved production back to Paris. That marked the beginning of the end. Plato was created as a competitor to the Chinese BellaBot. However, Aldebaran’s and the United Robotics Group’s problems were apparent by the beginning of 2025. In March, Aldebaran announced its insolvency. Buyers were sought, but to no avail. At the beginning of June, the company announced the end of its history.

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A Martian Landscape on the Brugg-Windisch Campus

Students from the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (Campus Rapperswil) have created a Martian landscape in front of the Hallerbau on the Brugg-Windisch campus in collaboration with the FHNW. This will serve as a training ground for the FHNW Mars rover and promote “interest in space travel and technology” (information sign on the construction site, own translation). According to the website, the FHNW rover team consists of “an interdisciplinary group of students from the School of Engineering and Environment and the School of Computer Science”. The so-called “Umwäldchen” with new plantings offers a place for relaxation and encounters and makes a “positive contribution to the environment” (information sign on the construction site). According to its website, the FHNW is “active in the development of observation instruments, components and manufacturing processes for the aerospace sector”. In addition to the aforementioned universities, the FHNW School of Business is also active in this field. In 2021, SPACE THEA was developed, a voice assistant for Mars flights, which was presented at the AAAI Spring Symposia at Stanford University in 2022 and attracted the attention of NASA. In 2025, the focus will be on social robots for Mars flights with a view to ICSR 2025.

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Bao in Olten

From April 15 to 17, 2025, the elective module “Social Robots” once again took place at the FHNW School of Business – as it has so often since 2021. The participants were information systems students from various locations. And once again, a GPT specialized in the topic was available, namely Social Robotics Girl. Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel repeatedly had her explain the facts and then made additions. She also asked questions to the audience and provided a few laughs with her competent and nerdy manner. The robots at the demo included Unitree Go2 (called Bao), Pepper, Alpha Mini, Booboo, Furby, Cozmo, and Aibi. With the exception of Pepper, they all come from the Social Robots Lab, which is privately funded by Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel. Unitree Go2 was used to explore not only the seminar room on the Olten campus, but also the area in front of it. The robotic four-legged friend ran forwards and backwards, jumped, stood on its hind legs, drew a heart in the air, and impressed with various dance interludes. When designing their own social robots – the students complete this task in groups – they again worked with the five-dimensions model by Oliver Bendel and image generators.

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Apollo Comes to Berlin-Marienfelde

According to a press release from March 18, 2025, Mercedes-Benz is bringing one of “the most advanced commercial humanoid robots in the world” (Mercedes-Benz press release, own translation) to Berlin-Marienfelde. This site has established itself as a global competence center for production digitization since the launch of the Mercedes-Benz Digital Factory Campus (MBDFC) in 2022. The manufacturer, Apptronik, is based in Austin and was founded in 2016 as a spin-off from the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas. According to its website, Apollo is “the first commercial humanoid robot that was designed for friendly interaction, mass manufacturability, high payloads and safety” (Apptronik website). The robot stands approximately 172 cm tall and weighs about 72 kg. Unlike comparable bipedal robots, it does not have a display in the facial area, but only two eyes. Its head resembles that of social robots such as ARI or P-Care. Apollo is a modular system that can be used either in a stationary or mobile setup. Regarding its implementation, Mercedes-Benz states in the press release: “The Apollo robots have collected data in a production environment in order to train for specific use cases” (Mercedes-Benz press release, own translation). Employees with hands-on production experience at Mercedes-Benz “transferred their knowledge to Apollo using teleoperation processes and augmented reality” (Mercedes-Benz press release, own translation). “Now, Mercedes-Benz is taking the next crucial development step at the MBDFC in Berlin: The Apollo robots are learning to operate autonomously – a technological milestone on the path to a flexible, intelligent assistance system for production” (Mercedes-Benz press release, own translation).

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A Truck Tire for the Police

China’s latest crime-fighting innovation is RT-G, an AI-powered spherical police robot that not only stops crime, but somehow detects it. “Developed by a Shenzhen-based robotics company Logon Technology, the bot robocops are engineered to assist law enforcement in high-risk situations and, eventually, replace human officers in the line of fire.” (Firstpost.com, 12 December 2024) This was reported by the Indian platform Firstpost.com under the title “Meet RT-G, ‘spherical’ robot that is helping China to tackle crime”. According to The Sun, the spherical robot can operate on both land and water, and is able to withstand rough terrain and mud with ease. In some pictures, the robot looks as futuristic and attractive as BB-8’s body, in others like the clumsy tire of a truck or a bus. Whether such a model will be widely accepted by the population is questionable. But perhaps that’s not the point. Like Spot, RT-G is perhaps intended to create uncertainty. Something like this is more likely to harm robotics.

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Trump is Guarded by Spot

Spot from Boston Dynamics is the latest tool in the arsenal of the US Secret Service. This was reported by the BBC on November 17, 2024. The robot was recently spotted patrolling the perimeter of President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. As the video on the website shows, they do not carry weapons; “and each can be controlled remotely or automatically – as long as its route is pre-programmed”. Passers-by are warned by a sign on each of Spot’s legs that reads, “DO NOT PET”. “I don’t know that anyone would be tempted to pet these robot dogs. They do not look cuddly,” Melissa Michelson, a political scientist at Menlo College, told the BBC. Oliver Bendel, an expert in social robotics at the FHNW School of Business, disagrees. He has been working with Unitree Go2, which is half the weight and smaller than SPOT but otherwise comparable, since 2023. “The students are initially amazed or shocked when they see it. After a minute or two, their doubts are dispelled and they try to lure it in and stroke it.” A robot like Spot is well suited to an estate like Mar-a-Lago. However, models such as K5 from Knightscope or RBwatcher from Robotnik/URG can also be used on the lawns.

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Robots in Prison

On October 22, 2024, Tamara Siegmann and Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel (School of Business FHNW) presented their project “Robots in Prison” at the ICSR in Odense (Denmark). They investigated whether collaborative and social robots can and should be used in prisons. One result was that modern industrial robots such as cobots and classic service robots such as transportation and cleaning robots hardly create any added value. Instead, they take work away from inmates. In contrast, social robots are conceivable and useful. They bring something to imprisonment that is common in freedom. And – an important point for resocialization – they can combat the loneliness of inmates. The International Conference on Social Robotics is the most important conference for social robotics alongside Robophilosophy. The paper “Social and Collaborative Robots in Prison” will be published in a proceedings volume by Springer at the end of the year.

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Robotics in Retail

September 25, 2024 was the first day of the AI & Robotics4Retail Conference 2024 in Bonn. It was part of the “ECR Day 2024”, which took place at the World Conference Center. Numerous practical presentations provide an insight into the most important AI and robotics topics in retail at the moment and provide important ideas for projects in your own company, according to the website. The keynote speech was given by Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel on the topic of “Service robots from a technical, economic and ethical perspective”. From the description: “Service robots have become widespread as cleaning, transportation, and security robots. As vacuum and mopping robots, they can be found in households, airports and hotels. As transport robots, they move around factories and warehouses, move between the buffet and kitchen in restaurants or bring orders to customers in cities. In the form of social robots, they advise and serve us in shopping malls or entertain our children while we shop. Universal robots, human-like machines that help in production and logistics in the morning, dig up the garden in the afternoon and play tennis with us in the evening, are just around the corner. They are connected to multimodal language models that enable or improve their control and perception. The talk presents use cases of this kind, classifies them from a technical, economic and ethical perspective, and takes a look into the future.” Further information about www.robotics-konferenz.de.