Developer pairs robot with gaming controllers for remote cat grooming, affection expression

You could take the time to make your cat feel loved. Or you could augment a robot to do it for you. Software engineer Taylor Veltrop has accomplished this by combining a 21-inch-tall Nao robot, a few Wiimotes, a Kinect sensor bar, a treadmill and a head-mounted display. The configuration, which represents about a year's work and several thousand dollars in parts, uses the Kinect and Wii remotes to control the robot's arms, the sensor bar and treadmill to provide movement and the head-mounted display to move the Nao's head and adjust its camera angle. This is still a work in progress, and doesn't include things like two-way audio, which Veltrop plans to implement using an integrated microphone and speakers. Click past the break for a video of robotic feline grooming action.