Teresa Escrig

A new android infant has been born thanks to the University of California San Diego’s Machine Perception Lab. The lab received funding from the National Science Foundation to contract Kokoro Co. Ltd. and Hanson Robotics, two companies that specialize in building lifelike animatronics and androids, to build a replicant based on a one year old baby. The resulting robot, which has been a couple of years in development, has finally been completed – and you can watch it smile and make cute faces.

With high definition cameras in the eyes, Diego San sees people, gestures, expressions, and uses AI modeled on human babies, to learn from people, the way that a baby hypothetically would. The facial expressions are important to establish a relationship, and communicate intuitively to people. As much a work of art as technology and science, this represents a step forward in the development of emotionally relevant robotics, building on previous work of David Hanson with the Machine Perception Lab such as the emotionally responsive Einstein shown at TED in 2009 (here another video).

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In 1970, the robotics professor Masahiro Mori coined the term uncanny valley, a hypothesis in the field of robotics and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The “valley” refers to the dip in a graph of the comfort level of humans as a function of a robot‘s human likeness. The hypothesis has been linked to Ernst Jentsch‘s concept of “the uncanny” identified in a 1906 essay, “On the Psychology of the Uncanny” Jentsch’s conception was elaborated by Sigmund Freud in a 1919 essay entitled “The Uncanny” (“Das Unheimliche“).

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What I would say is that basic research is done to be used in a myriad of ways, so that can serve humans best.

And certainly this very advanced research in robotic expressions can help us to be closer to something as cute as Gumdrop, the 27-year old Bulgarian robot-actress.

I really enjoyed  the following video from iRobot that shows their museum of all of the robotic prototypes and applications they’ve been working on over the years.

It’s amazing stuff, and very important to realize the amount of work that needs to be done to prove a concept. Even when proven, the robot may not meet some of the needs of the user, and not a best seller anyway.

Next time you buy a sophisticated toy or a small (not so intelligent) vacuum cleaner, remember all of the time, money, research and work behind it!

Thank you iRobot for showing us this treasure!

Gumdrop is a 27-year old Bulgarian robot-actress who has appeared in films with Fred Astaire and Charlie Chaplin, and now she’s auditioning for a new film with someone called TikTok.

Gumdrop is one of the most cute and endearing robots that have been creating in film. This is a short film from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow director Kerry Conran is totally worthy of a feature length version, diving into the life of Grumdrop.

What are the features of this bot-actress that does not exist in our current robots yet?

• Gumdrop is flexible in her body and mouth movements
• Gumdrop has an intelligent communication
• Gumdrop has a history as an individual robot (“when I was a litte robot”, she recalls)

Find the full article about the movie here.

The current robot that reminds me to Gumdrop is Tico, from Adele Robotics. Look at the following video:

Do you find more differences?

By Ann R. Thryft 11/12/2012

Service robots often mean robots that assist the elderly, or help with the rehabilitation of medical patients. But the range of services that robots can perform is extremely broad.

From a robotic fish that uses artificial intelligence to detect and identify pollution in seawater created by SHOAL,

To a telepresence PatrolBot which will let disabled police officers and military veterans serve as distance patrol officers, filling a gap in both the lack of patrol staff, and the lack of available jobs for disabled vets and officers, developed by Florida International University. Read the rest of this entry »

Adele Robotics has launched Fiona, a project for the robotics community to create an artificial mind.

This is another example of Cloud Robotics and reproducing the Apps economy for the robotics industry, the future of robotics.

Congratulations Adele!

October 19, 2012 by David Pietrocola at Robohub (Robohub is an online platform that brings together leading communicators in robotics research, start-ups, business, and education from around the world).

Open-source software is making it easier to reuse algorithms and allow engineers and researchers to focus on their problems of interest instead of reinventing the wheel for each project. Not an expert in path planning or don’t have the time (or patience) to implement SLAM? There’s a package for that. Manipulator control? Package for that too. Additionally, falling component prices and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices are making robotics hardware more available. This tutorial will teach you how to put together a simple remote teleoperation robot using these principles.

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Cognitive Brain for Service Robotics (R) from Cognitive Robots is created with ROS.

University of Bonn’s Team NimbRo are commercializing a humanoid platform, NimbRo-OP, for €20,000 (US$26,000) to compete in RoboCup‘s TeenSize league. It sounds rather expensive, but it will save teams the trouble of prototyping their own, and the untold hours of research and development that would normally require.

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ROBOHELPER SASUKE, a robot lifter,  and ROBOHELPER LOVE, a bodily waste removal system, are two devices created to help caregivers in their daily tasks. They were designed with the help of Toshiyuki Kita, who is known for creating the look of Sharp’s AQUOS TVs and Mitsubishi’s failed yellow household robot Wakamaru.

ROBOHELPER SASUKE helps lift a person into and out of bed using servo motors. The device has two rods connected by a sling that slides under the body. The sling is made of a special material and can accommodate a weight of 264 lbs (120 kg). Furthermore the arms can rotate up to 60 degrees, which allows the patient to comfortably transfer from a prone position to a sitting position.

ROBOHELPER LOVE – is an an automatic bodily waste disposal unit aimed at making bedpans a thing of the past. A cup wraps around the patient’s waist, fitted with sensors that automatically detect the presence of fluid and/or stool. The waste is quickly suctioned away into a holding tank, followed by a cleansing wash using room temperature water. The cup itself can be washed and sterilized automatically at the station. It can operate for up to 12 hours without supervision, making it ideal for overnight use.

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By Christopher Hall, September 28, 2012

FUROs, the new service robot from Korean robotics startup Future Robot can be defined as a hybrid between a smartphone and a smart machine.

According to Korea IT Times, the FURO interactive robot can provide a variety of services “by reading users’ intentions in different situations” by observing users’ movement, face and voice, and then conveying the “matched dialogue, facial expression, movement and necessary information.”

One buyer from Brazil, who ordered over 100 FUROs, came up with new business model – mobile (moving) advertisements. As FURO moves around in airports or exhibitions, they said, the back screens which are remotely operated can be utilized for advertisements while the front screen performs ordinary information services.

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