Teaching Robots To Interact Better With Humans

Humans rely on lots of fairly abstract social conventions when we communicate, and most of them are things that we don't even think about, like gaze direction and body orientation. Georgia Tech is using their robot, Simon, to not just try to interact with humans in the same ways that humans interact with each other, but also to figure out how to tell when a human is directing one of these abstract social conventions at the robot.

It's a tough thing, because natural interaction with other humans is deceptively subtle, meaning that Simon needs to be able to pick up on abstract cues in order to minimize that feeling of needing to talk to a robot like it's a robot, i.e. slowly and loudly and obviously. Gesture recognition is only the first part of this, and the researchers are hoping to eventually integrate lots of other perceptual cues and tools into the mix.

This expands on previous Georgia Tech research that we've written about; the robot in the vid is Cody, our favorite sponge-bath robot. While personally, I take every opportunity to be touched by robots whenever and wherever they feel like, other people may not necessarily be so receptive. As robots spend more time in close proximity to humans helping out with tasks that involve touch, it's important that we don't start to get creeped out or scared.

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Classroom robots are no longer just sci-fi jokes, but real instructors

Robots could one day help teach kids in classrooms, suggests research involving droids and toddlers in California.

A robot named RUBI has already shown that it can significantly improve how well infants learn words, and the latest version of the bot under development should also be able to wheel around classrooms, too.

The idea to develop RUBI came to Javier Movellan, director of the Machine Perception Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego, when he was in Japan for research involving robots and his kids were in a child care center.

"I thought, 'Let's bring robots to the child care center,’ and the children got really scared. It was a really horrible experience," Movellan recalled. "But it showed that the robots really got their attention, and that if we got the experience right, it could be potentially very powerful at evoking the emotional responses we'd want."

Movellan and his colleagues started working on RUBI in 2004. Its name is not an acronym. "My daughter, when she was 4 years old, just insisted that the robot had to be a girl," Movellan said.

The robot is about 2.5 feet (75 centimeters) high, "about the same size as the kids, to be less intimidating and improve interactions," Movellan said.

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Back to school for robot Stepan

A very special student is attending a lesson at Moscow's school number 166: Stepan, a plastic robot, is in the classroom to help a little boy with leukaemia to follow the lesson through his eyes.

In the meantime, the real Stepan, a 12-year-old boy with big blue eyes and brown hair, sits in front of a computer at his home and takes an active part in the lesson with help of his plastic friend.

Stepan Supin has been suffering from leukaemia for two years and his immune system is too fragile to allow him to leave home.

Equipped with a webcam, a microphone and a loudspeaker, the robot broadcasts in real time what happens in the classroom to the computer at the boy's home.

A screen in front of the robot actually allows the human Stepan to intervene at any time to ask for the teacher's clarification or to answer a question, teacher Alla Gevak said.

“We also call our robot Stepan. When the lesson begins, he starts working as an ordinary student and participates very actively,” she added.

Since September, the robot has been helping the boy to follow history, geography, English, and French lessons. Other subjects, such as Russian and mathematics, still require a teacher's visits, Gevak said.

Stepan said he feels like his is actually present in the classroom as he can fully control the robot's movements.

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MuRata Showcases Unicycling Robots

Japanese components manufacturer MuRata has demoed two robots at CES in Las Vegas, capable of riding both a bicycle and a unicycle.

The MuRata Boy robot comes fitted with an array of gadgets that allow it to smoothly navigate across flat terrain without bumping into objects. The bicycle-riding robot utilises multiple gyroscopes to prevent it from falling over.

The gyroscopes used are more commonly found in smartphones and are able to tell when the device is tilted so that the screen can be turned accordingly to keep balance.

The MuRata Girl robot is even more technologically advanced than the Boy, as she is able to ride a unicycle along a narrow beam. Both the robots are equipped with ultrasonic sensors that allow them to avoid collisions. The company said that the robots were not for sale, but were prototypes to demonstrate the capabilities of MuRata. MuRata Girl weighs 6 kg and her dream is to ride around the world while MuRata Boy is 50 centimetres tall and is a Zodiac

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S.Korea schools get robot English teachers

Almost 30 robots have started teaching English to youngsters in a South Korean city, education officials said Tuesday, in a pilot project designed to nurture the nascent robot industry.

Engkey, a white, egg-shaped robot developed by the Korea Institute of Science of Technology (KIST), began taking classes Monday at 21 elementary schools in the southeastern city of Daegu.

The 29 robots, about one metre (3.3 feet) high with a TV display panel for a face, wheeled around the classroom while speaking to the students, reading books to them and dancing to music by moving their head and arms.

The robots, which display an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, are controlled remotely by teachers of English in the Philippines -- who can see and hear the children via a remote control system.

Cameras detect the Filipino teachers' facial expressions and instantly reflect them on the avatar's face, said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST.

"Well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts elsewhere, including South Korea," he told AFP.

Apart from reading books, the robots use pre-programmed software to sing songs and play alphabet games with the children.

"The kids seemed to love it since the robots look, well, cute and interesting. But some adults also expressed interest, saying they may feel less nervous talking to robots than a real person," said Kim Mi-Young, an official at Daegu city education office.

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At your service: China's first robot restaurant

A hotpot restaurant in China's northern Shandong province has unveiled its new staff - a team of robots. Automated waiters and female robot dancers move between tables, offering trays of food and drinks.

The Dalu Robot Restaurant in Jinan City has over a dozen robots serving curious customers.

The project was set up by the Shandong Dalu Science and Technology Company, which designed and built the mechanical waiters from scratch. Each one costs around 6,000 US dollars to build, and has motion sensors designed to stop when objects or people are in its way.Their robotic serving powers are limited - they cannot physically serve customers or refill their cups. But most patrons find them amusing.

Li Xiaomei, customer of Dalu Robert Restaurant, said, "They have a better service attitude than real people. Humans can be impatient. These don't get tired, they just keep working and moving round and round."

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Healthcare robot gives sponge baths

While many movies and TV shows would have us believe that hospital sponge baths are only carried out by nurses at either end of the attractiveness spectrum, the reality is no doubt generally somewhere in between. In fact, I’m sure a lot of patients and even more nurses would prefer such tasks were handled by a robot. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology seem to have reached the same conclusion and have developed a robot that can autonomously perform bed baths to keep bedridden patients clean.

For their work the researchers took Cody, a humanoid robot developed at Georgia Tech’s Healthcare Robotics Lab that comprises a Segway omnidirectional mobile base, two anthropomorphic arms with seven degrees of freedom and wrists equipped with 6-axis force/torque sensors. The end of the robot’s right arm is fitted with a specialized “bath mitt” and the robot gathers laser range data and images from a laser range finder and camera mounted above the robot’s torso.

After the robot scans the patient, the operator is presented with an image overlaid with a point cloud. Using a mouse, the operator selects two points that form the diagonal corners of a rectangular bounding box that the operator wishes to clean. After the robot transforms the points to 3D Cartesian points the robot autonomously executes the wiping behavior sequence using the right arm.

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First humanoid space robot will be on shuttle

After 15 years of preparation, the first human-like robot designed for use in space is ready for launch.

The robot helper, called Robonaut 2, is packed in a box-within-a-box and cushioned with foam for its trip on the space shuttle Discovery scheduled to launch Nov. 1.

The humanoid robot, which resembles the torso, head and shoulders of a person, was designed by NASA and General Motors to work alongside astronauts to complete chores and repairs aboard the International Space Station. [ Gallery: Robonaut 2: Robot Butler for Astronauts ]

"The challenge we accepted when we started the Robonaut project was to build something capable of doing dexterous, human-like work," Rob Ambrose, the acting chief of the Automation, Robotics and Simulation Division at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, told reporters Oct. 21. "From the very beginning, the idea was the robot had to be capable enough to do the work but at the same time be safe and trusted to do that work right next to humans.

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