SoftBank NAO

SoftBank NAO (pronounced "now") is an autonomous, programmable humanoid robot designed by French company Aldebaran Robotics, founded in 2005 by Bruno Maisonnier. The NAO project was launched in 2004, and the first production unit was delivered to RoboCup 2008 contestants in March 2008. From 2013, Aldebaran operated as SoftBank Robotics after acquisition by SoftBank Group for USD 100 million. In 2022, the company was sold to United Robotics Group and rebranded back to Aldebaran. In 2025, following a brief insolvency process, assets were acquired by Chinese company Maxvision Technologies, which created the Maxtronics subsidiary.

Specifications and capabilities

NAO6 (version 6, 2018) stands 574 mm tall and weighs 5.48 kg. It has 25 degrees of freedom — 6 DOF in legs (3 per side), 5 DOF per arm and hand (including 1 DOF per hand), 2 DOF neck, 1 DOF waist. The robot is equipped with 2× OV5640 5 MP cameras with autofocus (FOV 67.4°), 4 omnidirectional microphones with sound localization, 2 speakers, sonar (2 emitters + 2 receivers, range 0.2–3 m), 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, 36 MRE magnetic encoders (12-bit, ~0.1° precision), 8 FSR force sensors in feet, 2 infrared sensors, and touch sensors on head and hands. Processing is handled by Intel Atom E3845 Quad Core 1.91 GHz with 4 GB DDR3 RAM and 32 GB SSD.

The Li-ion battery (62.5 Wh, 21.6 V) provides up to 90 minutes of active use; charging time is approximately 2 hours. The robot supports Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n and Ethernet. Software is based on NAOqi OS (OpenEmbedded) with Python and C++ SDKs, plus the Choregraphe visual programming environment. NAO is compatible with Webots (simulation), ROS, and generative AI platforms via Maxtronics NAO Activities.

Applications and history

NAO is used in education (programming, STEM, human-robot interaction), scientific research (200+ universities), healthcare (autism therapy, elderly care homes), and entertainment. Since 2010, NAO has been the official platform of the RoboCup Standard Platform League. As of 2024: over 13,000 units deployed in 70+ countries.