The website of Boston Dynamics features several videos on the acrobatics of Atlas, the Humanoid. With a height of 1.8 meters supporting a weight of 75 Kg, Atlas has a total of 28 joints and runs on battery power. It walks, runs, jumps, somersaults. Kengoro, the latest humanoid from University of Tokyo, is 1.7 meters tall and 56kg in weight, and is fitted with 160 motors for anatomical flexibility. Kengoro has a unique cooling system which allows it to sweat. But both sorely miss out on aesthetics. Perhaps aesthetics was remote from the minds of their designers.
Sophia, the humanoid designed by Hanson Robotics is a study in contrast. Modelled on the yesteryear British actress Audrey Hepburn, Sophia has more humanlike features. Media is brimming with her social capabilities. The Hanson website states that Sophia, (which means wisdom in Greek) is designed to achieve meaningful collaboration between humans and Artificial Intelligence. Miim, very Japanese in her attributes is petite, with just 158 centimeters in height and 43 kg weight. She can walk, speak and even dance. She is the creation of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tokyo.
Current projections estimate that by 2025, robots will execute 25% of manual labor. However socially assistive robots in health and services industries need to be endowed with more human-like traits. One of the areas design engineers need to focus is robotic movements. The movements of the robot/humanoid are jerky and abrupt. It is necessary to impart more fluidity to these movements. Muscles which smoothly contract and stretch allow humans to move gradually, gracefully. Briefly reviewing the trends in the field of Humanoid Designs, Amy La Viers, ( Director of Robotics, Automation and Dance Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) observes that "The diversity of robot movements needs to be expanded to include variable and complex motions." She suggests that roboticists must work in collaboration with dancers and choreographers to refine the movements of the robots.
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| Atlas, Courtesy: Wikipedia |
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| Sophia, Courtesy: Wikipedia |
Current projections estimate that by 2025, robots will execute 25% of manual labor. However socially assistive robots in health and services industries need to be endowed with more human-like traits. One of the areas design engineers need to focus is robotic movements. The movements of the robot/humanoid are jerky and abrupt. It is necessary to impart more fluidity to these movements. Muscles which smoothly contract and stretch allow humans to move gradually, gracefully. Briefly reviewing the trends in the field of Humanoid Designs, Amy La Viers, ( Director of Robotics, Automation and Dance Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) observes that "The diversity of robot movements needs to be expanded to include variable and complex motions." She suggests that roboticists must work in collaboration with dancers and choreographers to refine the movements of the robots.
Reference
1. How long until robots rule the world?
2. A Music-Driven Dance System of Humanoid Robots
3. How to make a Humanoid Robot Dance?
4. Make Robot motions natural : La Viers, Nature pp 422-424 Vol.565 January 2019
4. Make Robot motions natural : La Viers, Nature pp 422-424 Vol.565 January 2019
