Tech UPTechnologyResearchers create a robot that smiles back

Researchers create a robot that smiles back

Our facial expressions play an important role in building trust with other people. However, most of the robots that have been built so far are characterized by having a static face.

With the increasing use of robots in areas where humans and robots need to work closely together, from nursing homes to hospitals to factories and warehouses, the need for a more realistic robot, and with greater capacity response is even more urgent.

Now, researchers at the Creative Machines Laboratory, located at Columbia Engineering, have worked for five years to develop a new autonomous robot with some features that are sure to surprise you.

We introduce you to EVA

Baptized with the name of EVA , it would consist of a new autonomous robot, with a soft and expressive face, which stands out for being able to respond to match the facial expressions of people nearby.

The research will be presented at the ICRA conference to be held tomorrow, May 30, 2021, and the open source robot blueprints have already been available on ‘Hardware-X’ for a month.

According to the researchers, “the idea of EVA took shape a few years ago, when we began to notice that the robots in our laboratory were looking at us through bulging plastic eyes.” “This made us wonder why not make a robot that has a super expressive and responsive human face.”

While, it is true, this may sound quite simple at first, the reality is very different: creating a compelling robotic face has become a real challenge for robotics specialists .

What’s more, for decades, robotic body parts have been made of hard plastic or metal, materials too rigid to be able to flow and move in the same way that human tissue does. Furthermore, the robotic hardware has been just as complicated to work with, as the motors, circuits, and sensors are heavy and bulky.

Zanwar Faraj, an undergraduate student who began work on the first phase of the project in the laboratory, indicates that “the biggest challenge in creating EVA was designing a system that was compact enough to fit within the confines of a skull. human ”, but“ while still being functional enough to produce a wide range of facial expressions ”.

To overcome this challenge, the team relied primarily on 3D printing to make complex shaped parts, which were efficiently and seamlessly integrated into the EVA ‘skull’. After weeks to make the robot capable of smiling, frowning, or getting angry, the team noticed that EVA’s quirky blue face could elicit emotional responses from her lab colleagues .

According to Hod Lipson, professor of innovation, “I was minding my own business one day when EVA suddenly gave me a big friendly smile ,” he recalled. “I knew it was purely mechanical, but I found myself smiling back at him by reflex .”

Once the team was satisfied with the “mechanics” of EVA, they began to address the programming of artificial intelligence (AI) that would guide the robot’s facial movements, using deep learning AI to “read” and then mirror the expressions. that he finds through close human faces. But EVA’s ability is vastly greater, as she is capable of mimicking a wide range of different human facial expressions , which she learns by trial and error , by watching videos of herself.

Thus, after several improvements, EVA acquired the ability to read the gestures of the human face from a camera, and respond by reflecting the facial expression of that human.

They create a cyborg cockroach that works with solar energy

Cockroaches could be used in search and rescue missions or for environmental monitoring in the future.

The brain works like a quantum computer

New research from Trinity College Dublin concludes that certain brain functions 'must be quantum'.

Robots dancing to the rhythm of music: this is how Boston Dynamics move

Permission to dance? The robot dogs and some robotic spontaneous acted in a video that was made in conjunction with a concert held in South Korea.

This is Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot

Impressed? Tesla founder Elon Musk wants to build millions of robots like these and sell them for 20,000 euros a unit.

They build a wireless and battery-free underwater camera that is powered by sound

MIT researchers have developed a wireless underwater camera that works without batteries. The device converts sound into electrical energy.

More