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NAO is an autonomous programmable humanoid robot developed by Aldebaran (formerly SoftBank Robotics Europe) for research, education, and entertainment applications.
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Editorial Assessment
Reviewed by RoboDex Editorial
Date August 2026
Sources 5
Confidence HIGH
Assessment Version 2
Editorial Notes
SoftBank NAO — education and research humanoid staple worldwide.
NAO is an autonomous programmable humanoid robot developed by Aldebaran (formerly SoftBank Robotics Europe) for research, education, and entertainment applications.
Aldebaran began Project NAO in 2004 and released the first public NAO version in 2008. NAO replaced Sony Aibo as the RoboCup Standard Platform League robot in 2007 and has been used in SPL competitions since.
NAO is sold primarily as a research and education platform with Choregraphe visual programming, simulation support, and an open SDK ecosystem.
Over 13,000 NAO units have been used in more than 70 countries according to reported deployment figures.
NAO evolved through multiple hardware generations, culminating in NAO6 in 2018. Development continued under Maxtronics after Aldebaran's 2025 receivership and acquisition.
Maxtronics announced continued NAO6 support and development of NAO7 with embedded AI and updated sensing.
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