Japan wants more robot research, sells source code for humanoids

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Thursday, August 7th, 2008


ZMP
, the world’s first venture company focusing on robot technology and – of course – based in Tokyo, is selling the source code [JP] for nuvo, one of its best-selling robots. The humanoid was unveiled in 2004 and ZMP says it’s the first robot for home use.

The company’s aim is to establish a research community centered on the findings derived from doing research with the nuvo source code.

Target customers are educational institutions, companies and individuals. For $2,400, buyers will get one of the nuvo robots, the source code (in C++ and C) and an electrical circuit diagram. 3 days of instruction by ZMP employees (maintenance, system analysis etc.) is included in the price.

By offering their IP to outside parties, ZMP hopes to make a contribution to next-generation robot technology as a whole. However, the number of participants in the “nuvo source code program” is limited to 50, with the first one being a Japanese professor.

I am just wondering how they would treat Non-Japanese customers, given the (better than average) English pages were last updated in 2006.

Via Tech-On

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