ACTROID

Posted by : Unknown Friday, September 26, 2014

Actroid is a type of android (humanoid robot) with strong visual human-likeness developed by Osaka University and manufactured by Kokoro Company Ltd. It was first unveiled at the 2003 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. The robot's appearance has been modelled after an average young woman of Japanese descent.

It can do such lifelike functions as blinking, speaking, and breathing. The "Repliee" models are interactive robots with the ability to recognize and process speech and respond in kind.

Technology

Internal sensors allow Actroid to react with a natural appearance by way of air actuators placed at many points of articulation in the upper body. So far, movement in the lower body is limited. The operation of the robot’s sensory system in tandem with its air powered movements makes it quick enough to react to sudden motions, such as a slap or a poke. Artificial intelligence gives it the ability to react in a different way to more gentle kinds of touch, such as a pat on the arm.

The Actroid can also imitate human-like behavior, head and eye movements and the appearance of breathing in its chest. Additionally, the robot can be "taught" to imitate human movements by facing a person who is wearing reflective dots at key points on their body. By tracking the dots with its visual system and computing limb and joint movements to match what it sees, this motion can then be "learned" by the robot and repeated.

The skin is composed of silicone and appears real.

The interactive Actroids can also communicate on a basic level with humans by speaking. Microphones within those Actroids record the speech of a human, and this sound is then filtered to remove background noise - including the sounds of the robot's own operation. Speech recognition software is then used to convert the audio stream into words and sentences, which can then be processed by the Actroid's A.I. A verbal response is then given through speakers external to the unit.