Hanson Robotics is taking the process even further by delivering human expressions on a human-like face. These faces use the company's own low-cost Frubber material, which wrinkles, bunches, and generally moves like real skin.
One of Hanson Robotics' first projects was a lifelike, android portrait of the late science-fiction author Philip K. Dick, whose work was used as the basis for the movies Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall. The robot combines expressive robot hardware, natural language AI, and machine vision. Cameras in its eyes allow it to perceive people's identity and behavior using machine vision and biometric-identification software. It also can respond to people in its field of vision. This first project addressed only the robot's face.
Hanson Robotics' next project used a familiar face, Albert Einstein (Fig. 3). While its form looks more like the ASIMO than a real person, the body will provide mobility for a robot with a lifelike face that uses improvements garnered from the Philip K. Dick project.
Powerful, low-cost servo motors are only one key element of this type of solution. Its multiple processors and advanced application software also require large amounts of memory and sophisticated networking.
Buying Robots For Your Health
By keeping the problems of humanoid robots in perspective, many companies are now developing practical and economical solutions. Granted, their movement and user interaction may be less sophisticated than Honda's ASIMO or Hanson Robotics' Einstein. But many applications can benefit from a simpler mobile robot.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plans to release Wakamaru in Japan sometime next year for the home healthcare market (Fig. 4). The robot should be available for 1 million yen, or about $8300. Costs for this class of robots could drop further as volume increases and hardware and software improve.
Wakamaru was named after a young Japanese samurai, Minamoto Yoshitsune, whose childhood name was "Ushi-wakamaru." Both Wakamarus are associated with "growth" and "development."
The 63-lb, 3-ft fully autonomous robot has a round yellow head and black eyes. It has a built-in cell phone that can call for help if it detects an emergency. Its camera, microphone, and identification software can identify people through facial and voice recognition. It has 13 DoF, including two for its wheels. Rolling is still more power-efficient and stable than walking.
Wakamaru is powered my MontaVista Software's Linux running on Texas Instruments TMS320C6000 and TMS320C2000 DSPs. It will be able to make phone calls, send e-mails, and remotely track individuals. Researchers hope the software will be able to detect the daily rhythm of life as the robot speaks and interacts with people.
Although Wakamaru doesn't have an especially expressive face, it can turn its head and gesture with its arms to get similar results. Its cute form and color are designed to appeal to children as well as adults. It has about a 10,000-word vocabulary, and it should be able to keep track of up to eight people within a family or group.
Wakamaru does use some interesting techniques. For example, it has a camera that looks straight up. It uses the ceiling image to help track its movements throughout a house. This enables the robot to locate its charger when its batteries run low after about two hours of operation.
Robots are being built using the latest technology, from six-axis force sensors and gyroscopes for input to multiple core processors for faster response and more computing power. Advances in hardware have made lifesized robots possible, but the software will provide the human interaction.