Hitachi's Not-so-new Security Robot

Earlier this week, Hitachi captured the attention of the Blogosphere with its 'new' security robot.

Not so fast, says MobileRobots. Apparently, Hitachi's robot is simply a repackaged Pioneer DX. "The wheel rims are the giveaway. The Pioneer DX systems sold a few years ago had unique gold wheel rims custom-manufactured for our company, which can be seen quite clearly in the photo."

One hopes that Hitachi's innovation is in the software. The security robot is supposedly able to plot its navigation and recognize when things look out of the ordinary. Hitachi has not formally responded to MobileRobots, so there's no way to know for certain.

There is more in the original press release and in vnunet.com's follow-up story.