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IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Evolution Robotics™ Announces New Linux and Windows Versions of Software Development Kit for ERSP™

ERSP Software Development Kit (SDK) 2.0 Facilitates Development of Custom Robotics Applications and Innovative Consumer and Industrial Products for a Wide Range of Industries

Pasadena, CA – 03/31/03 - Evolution Robotics Inc., a leading provider of comprehensive, state-of-the-art robotics solutions, today announced the availability of the Evolution Robotics Software Platform (ERSP) SDK 2.0, a robust set of software components for robotics application building. The SDK will allow OEMs to take advantage of functionality from vision, navigation, interaction and architecture/control systems, which will enable them to create innovative consumer and industrial robotics applications.

Since 2001, Evolution Robotics has focused its efforts on building a team of leading engineers, scientists and software developers, and subsequently designing and releasing breakthrough robotics software solutions. The robotics technologies found in ERSP 2.0 provide OEMs tangible, measurable benefits by reducing product and development costs, accelerating time to market and increasing overall product functionality.

"The ERSP SDK 2.0 represents a landmark in the burgeoning, autonomous robotics industry,” said Bernard Louvat, CEO, Evolution Robotics. “Not only does it provide a robotics control architecture that can become an industry standard, it also has breakthrough technologies in the areas of vision and navigation that will enable OEMs to shorten their product development cycles and include amazing new functionality in their products."

ERSP SDK 2.0 Features:

Vision

Evolution Robotics Vision system is a true technology breakthrough enabling effective vision-based applications to be implemented at fractions of the cost of current solutions. Considered the world’s most robust, the visions system can recognize up to 10,000 objects in real-time, real-world environments. As a result of its performance, ERSP SDK 2.0 vision components can be used for robot navigation, sorting applications, target following, and book reading, for example.

Navigation

ERSP 2.0 Navigation modules for safe mobility include obstacle avoidance, collision detection, bump detection and cliff detection. Sensors supported include IR, bump, laser range finder and cameras.

Interaction

The Interaction module gives developers the ability to customize speech and gesture recognition in order to communicate with robots in ways that are natural for humans. Also included is functionality to develop a personality and set of emotions for robots that can greatly enhance the user experience.

Architecture

The ERSP 2.0 Architecture provides OEMs with standards for building software components in a modular fashion and using compatible interfaces with infrastructure and development tools that allow them to integrate hardware and software components in a rapid and straightforward manner. This critical element of the ERSP can save manufacturers significant recurring engineering and integration costs.

The APIs supplied with ERSP 2.0 support industry standard development tools to further encourage the creation and development of robotics products geared towards the industrial cleaning, assisted living, consumer appliances, and security markets, among others.

ERSP 2.0 is available in an SDK, or in a multiuse, redistribution license, on Windows or Linux. Visit www.evolution.com for more details.

About Evolution Robotics
Evolution Robotics™, www.evolution.com, develops and licenses state-of-the-art robotics software technologies and applications that assist manufacturers in bringing robotics products to market. The Evolution Robotics Software Platform or ERSP™ includes a state-of-the-art robotics software architecture, application development tools and core robotic functionality modules such as object recognition, visual navigation, speech recognition, and human-robot interaction. Evolution Robotics mission is to accelerate the robot industry and help spur the creation of a variety of highly functional robot products that will become indispensable in our daily lives, at home and at work. Evolution Robotics is an operating company of Idealab, a creator and operator of technology businesses.