Aldebaran (formerly Aldebaran Robotics, later SoftBank Robotics Europe) · education humanoid
NAO
A 57 cm programmable humanoid that walks, talks in about 20 languages, recognises faces and gets up after falls. Aldebaran was later owned by SoftBank and, after a 2025 receivership, its assets were bought by Maxvision (Maxtronics), which continues NAO6.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- 57 cmTaller than 2%
- Weight
- 4.8 kgHeavier than 1%
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- 0.3 km/hFaster than 1%
- Battery
- 1.5 hRuns longer than 9%
Official maker page, not an affiliate link. Checked 2026-10-10.
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Why it matters
The most widely used humanoid in education and research, and the standard robot for RoboCup's Standard Platform League. Included despite its small size because of that.
Real-world use
RoboCup Edition shipped March 2008; over 13,000 units were in use in more than 70 countries by 2024, including therapy sessions for autistic children from 2012.
Timeline
- Released
- 2008-03
Maker
Aldebaran (formerly Aldebaran Robotics, later SoftBank Robotics Europe)Company · founded 2005 · Paris, FranceUS$13 million venture round led by Intel Capital (June 2011); acquired by SoftBank for about US$100 million (2013); sold to United Robotics Group…
How it stacks up
Against other humanoids that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
NAO is taller than 2% of the 305 other humanoids that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
NAO is heavier than 1% of the 277 other humanoids that publish a weight. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
NAO is faster than 1% of the 122 other humanoids that publish a speed. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
NAO has more joints than 30% of the 236 other humanoids that publish a joints. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
NAO runs longer than 9% of the 119 other humanoids that publish a battery. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: payload, price.
What it has been shown doing
We checked public videos and press for NAO and found no clear demo of the skills we track yet.
Public attention
How much public attention NAO gets, from open data.
- No Wikipedia article of its own yet
- 4 news stories from reputable press listed on this page
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-13; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Walks on legs · 25 joints
- Chip
- Atom E3845 (Intel)NAO6 uses a quad-core Intel Atom E3845 at 1.91 GHz with 4 GB DDR3 RAM.
- Actuators & motors
- 25 Portescap brush coreless DC motors in the current NAO6 (25 degrees of freedom: head 2, arms 5 each, pelvis 1, legs 5 each, hands 1 each); 36 magnetic rotary encoders. The RoboCup variant has 21 DoF without actuated hands.
- Hands
- 1 degree of freedom per hand (open/close); capacitive touch sensing.
- Sensors & vision
- Two cameras (VGA in early models, 5 MP OmniVision in NAO6), four microphones, inertial unit (3-axis accelerometer and gyros), two sonar pairs, two infrared emitters, tactile sensors, eight force-sensing resistors in the feet and foot bumpers.
- Compute
- AMD Geode 500 MHz (2008), Intel Atom Z530 1.6 GHz (2009 onwards), Intel Atom E3845 quad-core 1.91 GHz with 4 GB RAM and 32 GB SSD (NAO6, 2018).
- Battery & power
- NAO6 uses a 62.5 Wh lithium-ion battery; rated runtime is 60 minutes in active use or 90 minutes in normal use (Maxtronics, 2026).
- Materials & build
- Polycarbonate-ABS plastic, polyamide and carbon-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic; stronger metal joints from the Evolution (V5) model.
- AI & software
- NAOqi, a Linux-based OS (Gentoo, later Yocto); Choregraphe graphical programming, simulator and SDK for C++, Python, Java and more.
- Other details
- Wi-Fi and Ethernet (later Bluetooth). Official RoboCup Standard Platform League robot since 2007/2008.
Named suppliers:IntelAMDOmniVisionPortescapTekscan
Lineage
Every Aldebaran Robotics humanoid in order.
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not published
- How to get one
- Maker's website
- Where it is sold or used
- Worldwide, mainly schools, universities and research labs
- Customers and pilots
- RoboCup Standard Platform League (from 2008)
News
The latest 4, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- Maxvision Secures Core Robot Assets of Aldebaran
Maxvision acquired Aldebaran’s core robot assets, including NAO-related technology and intellectual property, and announced a French subsidiary to preserve local R&D and support.
Maxvision Technology - JTP announces advance sales of NAO6
JTP announced advance sales of SoftBank Robotics’ NAO6, with improved CPU, memory, cameras, audio, motors, and connectivity; deliveries were planned for October 2018.
JTP - UT Austin Villa 2008: Standing on Two Legs
UT Austin Villa worked on physical Aldebaran NAO robots starting in March 2008 and entered the first NAO Standard Platform League competition at RoboCup in July 2008.
University of Texas at Austin, Department of Computer Sciences - RoboCup replaces AIBO league with NAO Standard Platform League
RoboCup selected NAO to replace Sony AIBO and established the Standard Platform League.
Impress Robot Watch
Sources
Figures come from the maker. Every link below backs something on this page.
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