Humans or Robots? Can you decide?
The future of edutainment and service robots...
U0308283 Wu Chengyu
Introduction
Robots are usually designed to function optimally, be it streamlined to reduce resistive forces or having extra legs for traveling on rough terrains. But come 21st century, robots today are now deployed for a new reason – to facilitate and improve communication. To achieve this goal, robots have to have a new appearance. As psychologists have shown, robots with a human-like appearance have a stronger presence and humans are more likely to interact with them. Hence, the new generation of robots is born. Humanoid robots, with appearance and behaviour similar us, are the solutions to our new needs. Indeed, should we perfect this technology, we could be looking at a whole new range of jobs robots can help us with. This would include using robots as entertainers such as actors, performers, dancers etc or in service sectors like as a receptionists or usher or in education fields as a translator or teacher. The possibilities are endless should we be able to pass robots off as a human substitute when needed. Here, let us marvel at some examples of humanoid robots that have already been tested.
Repliee Q1 & Q2
Humanoid robots Repliee Q2 and ‘her’ predecessor Repliee Q1 can be said be the closest to humans that were ever made. Whether in terms of appearance or behavior, these 2 robots were modeled as closely to humans as possible. Instead of having hard plastic as a skin, these 2 robots are made of flexible silicone to give a skin like look and texture. In addition, the two robots each have 42 actuators, allowing her to do the most minute yet smooth motions such as the fluttering of her eyelids. They can even stimulate breathing by the subtle rising and falling of their chests. Finally, these two are even programmed to shift about their positions randomly, much akin to their creators, humans. Another version of Repliees Q2 is the Repliee R1 which is modeled after a 5 year old girl instead but using the same technology.
Actroids
There have been several other human-like robots like the Repliees but the most significant of them will be the ones built from the Japanese company Kokoro and Advanced Media. Called Actroids, many of them have already been employed commercially especially in service. In this newest version of Actroids, a female type reception robot has been employed in an information booth. These Actroids look very much like humans but are able to recognize and respond in up to 4 different languages, making them even better than their human counterparts.
Motion System
To achieve humanlike motion, both Repliee and Androids or humanoid robots in general use an air compressor to power their motions. Highly pressurized air is supplied to an actuator called a cylinder to move mechanical units. Generally speaking, an actuator used for heavy machinery employs hydraulic pressure instead of pneumatic one. Mounted with 42 actuators, the Repliee and Actroids are able to move very smoothly, much like a human being. Actroids are also suited with a system to control their motions such that when making conversation, they would look at the enquirer’s face and move its lips, as though pronouncing their sentences. They may even change their facial expressions or show some hand gestures according to the context of the conversation. Although to date, most humanoid robots can only sit down and move the upper part of their body. This is due to the constraint that these robots have to be attached to the air compressor, which is too large to be fitted inside her body, hence limiting her mobility.
Voice Recognition and Response System
The most challenging part of creating a practical humanoid robot for interactive purposes would be to give it intelligence to recognize speeches or questions and generate an appropriate response. Let us study one of the most advance voice recognition engine present in robots today - AmiVoice®. Developed by Japanese company Advance Media Inc, AmiVoice® is currently the voice recognition engine used by Actroids. With this engine, Actroids can effectively understand and speak up to 4 different language, namely English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. This is done through a speech recognition check not per word, but per sentence of each speech. Such a utility is exceptionally useful when the guests could come from more many countries and hence predefining a language is unfeasible. AmiVoice® has been proven to accurately recognize the language of each person regardless of the difference in intonations and accents, high or low pitches or speaking speeds. But to be able to first hear the enquirer, Actroid must first be able to filter off the background noises and decide when someone is speaking to her. This is done also in the AmiVoice®’s noise cancellation technology which ensures the accuracy of the voice recognition. To prevent Actroid to start talking to herself, there is another echo cancellation algorithm which would prevent Actroid from recognizing and processing her own voice. Finally, as a final step to simulate humans, Actroid has a voice synthesizer system within which would generate a natural voice that’s similar to a human’s.
Here is a flowchart of Actroid’s response program.
Future Trends
Robotics today is advancing in an amazing pace. Now, there is talk of new technology there can create a fake skin for robots, giving them not only a sense of touch but also the ability to detect pressure and temperature or maybe even humility, light, strain and sound which human skin cannot sense. There is also further progress in trying to incorporate muscles into robots, hence allowing them to move much like us. These new technologies, if successful, can be added into our humanoid robot. With a sense of touch like ours and muscles to generate an even smoother motion, robots may eventually look identical to a normal human being. We may eventually find robots acting on our tv screens or standing in front of our tutorial rooms! While this may open up a wide range of uses for us, it is still quite scary should one be no longer able to tell the difference between a robot and a human. Who or what are you?
References
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm
http://automatesintelligent.blog.lemonde.fr/automatesintelligent/2005/08/repliee_ou_line.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0817_050817_robotskin.html
http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2006/03/robot_muscles_double_as_fuel_cells.html
U0308283 Wu Chengyu
Introduction
Robots are usually designed to function optimally, be it streamlined to reduce resistive forces or having extra legs for traveling on rough terrains. But come 21st century, robots today are now deployed for a new reason – to facilitate and improve communication. To achieve this goal, robots have to have a new appearance. As psychologists have shown, robots with a human-like appearance have a stronger presence and humans are more likely to interact with them. Hence, the new generation of robots is born. Humanoid robots, with appearance and behaviour similar us, are the solutions to our new needs. Indeed, should we perfect this technology, we could be looking at a whole new range of jobs robots can help us with. This would include using robots as entertainers such as actors, performers, dancers etc or in service sectors like as a receptionists or usher or in education fields as a translator or teacher. The possibilities are endless should we be able to pass robots off as a human substitute when needed. Here, let us marvel at some examples of humanoid robots that have already been tested.Repliee Q1 & Q2
Humanoid robots Repliee Q2 and ‘her’ predecessor Repliee Q1 can be said be the closest to humans that were ever made. Whether in terms of appearance or behavior, these 2 robots were modeled as closely to humans as possible. Instead of having hard plastic as a skin, these 2 robots are made of flexible silicone to give a skin like look and texture. In addition, the two robots each have 42 actuators, allowing her to do the most minute yet smooth motions such as the fluttering of her eyelids. They can even stimulate breathing by the subtle rising and falling of their chests. Finally, these two are even programmed to shift about their positions randomly, much akin to their creators, humans. Another version of Repliees Q2 is the Repliee R1 which is modeled after a 5 year old girl instead but using the same technology. Actroids
There have been several other human-like robots like the Repliees but the most significant of them will be the ones built from the Japanese company Kokoro and Advanced Media. Called Actroids, many of them have already been employed commercially especially in service. In this newest version of Actroids, a female type reception robot has been employed in an information booth. These Actroids look very much like humans but are able to recognize and respond in up to 4 different languages, making them even better than their human counterparts.Motion System
To achieve humanlike motion, both Repliee and Androids or humanoid robots in general use an air compressor to power their motions. Highly pressurized air is supplied to an actuator called a cylinder to move mechanical units. Generally speaking, an actuator used for heavy machinery employs hydraulic pressure instead of pneumatic one. Mounted with 42 actuators, the Repliee and Actroids are able to move very smoothly, much like a human being. Actroids are also suited with a system to control their motions such that when making conversation, they would look at the enquirer’s face and move its lips, as though pronouncing their sentences. They may even change their facial expressions or show some hand gestures according to the context of the conversation. Although to date, most humanoid robots can only sit down and move the upper part of their body. This is due to the constraint that these robots have to be attached to the air compressor, which is too large to be fitted inside her body, hence limiting her mobility.
Voice Recognition and Response System
The most challenging part of creating a practical humanoid robot for interactive purposes would be to give it intelligence to recognize speeches or questions and generate an appropriate response. Let us study one of the most advance voice recognition engine present in robots today - AmiVoice®. Developed by Japanese company Advance Media Inc, AmiVoice® is currently the voice recognition engine used by Actroids. With this engine, Actroids can effectively understand and speak up to 4 different language, namely English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. This is done through a speech recognition check not per word, but per sentence of each speech. Such a utility is exceptionally useful when the guests could come from more many countries and hence predefining a language is unfeasible. AmiVoice® has been proven to accurately recognize the language of each person regardless of the difference in intonations and accents, high or low pitches or speaking speeds. But to be able to first hear the enquirer, Actroid must first be able to filter off the background noises and decide when someone is speaking to her. This is done also in the AmiVoice®’s noise cancellation technology which ensures the accuracy of the voice recognition. To prevent Actroid to start talking to herself, there is another echo cancellation algorithm which would prevent Actroid from recognizing and processing her own voice. Finally, as a final step to simulate humans, Actroid has a voice synthesizer system within which would generate a natural voice that’s similar to a human’s.
Here is a flowchart of Actroid’s response program.
Future Trends
Robotics today is advancing in an amazing pace. Now, there is talk of new technology there can create a fake skin for robots, giving them not only a sense of touch but also the ability to detect pressure and temperature or maybe even humility, light, strain and sound which human skin cannot sense. There is also further progress in trying to incorporate muscles into robots, hence allowing them to move much like us. These new technologies, if successful, can be added into our humanoid robot. With a sense of touch like ours and muscles to generate an even smoother motion, robots may eventually look identical to a normal human being. We may eventually find robots acting on our tv screens or standing in front of our tutorial rooms! While this may open up a wide range of uses for us, it is still quite scary should one be no longer able to tell the difference between a robot and a human. Who or what are you?
References
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm
http://automatesintelligent.blog.lemonde.fr/automatesintelligent/2005/08/repliee_ou_line.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0817_050817_robotskin.html
http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2006/03/robot_muscles_double_as_fuel_cells.html
