Carnegie Mellon Hosts Sony's QRIO Robot

 ECE Alumnus Todd Kozuki Participates in Demo

February 3, 2005

Sony Electronics Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer Hideki "Dick" Komiyama visited Carnegie Mellon last week to introduce and demonstrate QRIO, the company's two-and-a-half-foot tall, autonomous, interactive humanoid robot.

QRIO, whose name is a play on the word curiosity, combines cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and dynamics technologies. It can move on its own accord, gather information, recognize people's faces and voices and carry on conversations. It walks by moving its limbs in a smooth and natural way, and when it falls or is pushed over, it can get up on its own and continue its activities.

Introduced to the world in October 2003, QRIO has made a number of appearances in the United States, but this was the first time it appeared on an American college campus.

The event recognized Sony's strong relationship with Carnegie Mellon AI and robotics researchers, in particular Computer Science Professor Manuela Veloso and her students, who have worked with Sony's famed AIBO four-legged entertainment robots since 1998, honing their soccer-playing skills to demonstrate teamwork and multi-agent learning. Carnegie Mellon teams have participated in the International RoboCup Legged competition since its inception in 1998, winning two world championships (1998, 2002). They also were champions in the first two U.S. Opens (2003 and 2004).

Participants in the demonstration included Sony software developer John DeCuir, senior engineer Todd Kozuki, and sales and marketing manager Ken Orli. Kozuki earned his bachelor's (2000) and master's (2001) degrees from Carnegie Mellon's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. DeCuir and Orli also gave a robotics lecture for students and faculty.

Sony's QRIO site:

QRIO's Carnegie Mellon visit in the news:

Source: Anne Watzman, Carnegie Mellon News

QRIO is a two-and-a-half-foot tall, silver-colored, autonomous humanoid robot designed to interact with people as a companion or personal assistant.

ECE Alumnus Todd Kozuki with QRIO.