Reem-B presentation chronicle

On June 11th the Reem-B humanoid robot was finally introduced to the general public and the media. It was the final step after a research and development period of more than two years, which ended on a pleasant evening.

The presentation took place at Reem Island, an artificial island situated in Abu Dhabi at the United Arab Emirates. The event was  a ceremony attended by international press and dignitaries of the UAE including Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

This page contains a brief chronicle of the event from the point of view of the developers (a.k.a the Reem Team), with the aim of informing interested people and stress the importance of the moment for all of us.

The team flight with the robot from our headquarter in Barcelona (Spain) to Reem island several days before the event. Everything had to be tested and checked at the demonstration place. Since this was the first time Reem-B was to be used outside the lab, we needed to make sure that everything would correctly work under different circumstances than those at our lab.

After testing that everything was working, we had to work together with the organization comitee to test every part of the demo at the place of the event. An important part of the event was to achieve a correct coordination between the robot and the event environment (that means, the presenters, the lights, the sound, the tempo of the spectacle...) in order to obtain an insteresting show for the public.

During the tests, we received the visit of His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the chairman of The Royal Group, parent company of Pal Technology. This means our highest boss!!.

Before the presentation event, a press conference was given were our team leader explained to the press the abilities and special characteristics of the robot (strength, autonomy, manipulation abilities...). One of the most recurrent questions was about the price of the robot, but he managed to avoid to answer. During this conference, Pal Technology revealed that the main purpose in the design of this robot is to commercialize it in the near future.

After the press conference, the presentation event began with a video projection. It was a brief introduction to the history of robotics. The end of the video linked with the real presentation of the robot to the public in the scenario, as you can see in the following video.

After the video presentation, Reem was introduced to the public by the two MC, and started the show demonstrating its abilities as described during the press event. On the first demonstration, Reem-B showed its ability to enroll people on its memory. Faces of the people were stored on the robot memory for future recognition, and to keep a list of reminders associated to each person. The following video shows the process of enrollment.

Next demonstration was about the navigation abilities of the robot. Reem-B is the first humanoid robot in the world of its size that is capable to create a map of its environment, and use it to localize itself and move autonomously on it, for indoor environments. It can also perform autonomous paths using that map, and avoid obstacles while moving. The following video shows how the robot creates map of the scenario and once it is completed, localizes itself on it.

Afterwards, the robot demonstrated how capable is to carry heavy weights. The robot was loaded with a brick of more than 10 Kg, and brought it to another person who was waiting to use it for the construction of the buildings of the island. Reem-B is the strongest humanoid robot of the world.

Finally, the robot used its fingered hand and the stereo visual system to pick up a scholarship in roll shape from the hands of one of the presenters. This showed how Reem-B is capable to coordinate vision with grasping. Once the roll was on its hands, Reem-B walked up to His Higness and gave the roll up to him. Afterwards, it asked the Sheikh for a picture together...

After this demostration, the event was about to end. But before this happen, one of the guys enrolled at the begining of the demo was asked to come back to the scenario infront of the robot. The robot recognized him as one of its acquitances and welcomed it back (no video available).

The event ended with a session of pictures with the robot. Different personalities posed with it during more than an hour...

• Robot lands on Reem Island (pictures, video and description).
• Robot with a difference! (description).
• Humanoid Reem-B robot walks, talks, and listens (pictures, video and description).
• Review on RAI 1 TV (Italian television, video).

If you want to meet Reem-B, it will be at the following international events:

• Campus Party, Valencia, Spain. Starting the 28th July, 2008.
• Intel development forum, San Francisco, USA. Starting the 21th August, 2008. (Still to be confirmed).