HUBO

There is a constant deliberation amidst the Robotics community: can humanoid bots be really developed? If they can be, would they be capable of emulating human behavior or even perhaps match the competencies displayed by the human brain to some extent?

The answer to these questions can be further explored through the development of the first Android based humanoid bot by Professor Oh Jun-Ho, on behalf of Korea Advanced institute of science and technology, with the lower body of a bipedal frame, that of a robot, while keeping the head of a human(Albert Einstein in this case). The capabilities of this humanoid bot, though limited, include features such as independent eye movements on both the eyes, facial gestures, voice recognition and synthesis apart from movement freedom on more than 3 independent axes. There has also been a development of the HUBO 2 by the same organisation on similar scales as the upgraded version to HUBO also known as Albert HUBO.

The robot is specially known for its facial gestures which are closely matched to the more than 1000 facial gestures that the human face is capable of. Also another remarkable feature of this bot is the capability to produce a synthesized voice on the patterns of the voice of the famous physicist Albert Einstein. The bi-pedal frame is capable also of matching the human type walking movement though  it is still at very slow speeds, which in turn are a remarkable feature for such a frame.

The technicalities of this bot are also a benchmark in this industry with various motors and special sensors put in place to monitor and to react to situations on real time basis. It uses two on-board PC104 processors and solid state drives for faster instruction processing power and retrieval. The left one can control the entire robot, taking care of functions such as walking and overall stabilization; the right one on the other hand is normally empty and one can load speech, vision, and navigation algorithms. 

Such humanoid bots are a great leap in terms of human based interactions because such bots can be very readily deployed in the future in places of public interest to interact with live humans and perhaps provide more options and benchmarks in terms of the human-bot interaction in a more informal manner.

Asimo

Asimo, which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, is not the first humanoid robot, but as his name predicts he has been the leader in a wide range of innovations. He made his first appearance in October 2000 and over the years it has been presented with several new features. Honda, its developer, wanted to provide the world with a robot that would add value to our society. So they invented a new type of robot, one not related to the business environment, that could help people in their daily life. That it is why Asimo is only 1.2 meters tall, so he can move around easily in spaces that are occupied by humans, but he can still reach for certain objects, like switches or doorknobs. His size also contributes to the fact that he has a very attractive appearance, almost human-like.

One of the technologies that also contribute to its human appearances is the Predicted Movement Control. Combined with the already existing technologies it makes him move with great flexibility and smoothness as you can see in the video. It results in an intelligent real-time flexible way of walking, easily making changes of direction, and responding to sudden movements. It is ably to steer clear from a person or, contrary, to approach someone to great him or her. Over the years his movements have become more and more stable, enabling him now to even run up to 3.7 mph, kicking a football, or running up and down stairs.

Recognizing moving objects, postures, gestures, sounds and faces are other features that make him resemble a human being. As it can interact with us, he really starts to grow on us, like a pet, or maybe like a real friend. Even though his two eyes are just cameras, they give him a actual face, and most importantly they make sure that he captures everything that happens around him, detecting movements of multiple objects or determining distance and direction. It can even follow us around, like a little dog. But you never have to clean up after him. Nor feed him, because he will know when his 51.8V lithium ion battery needs to be charged, and by himself he will return to his charger point. Also, thanks to its voice interpretation, it will listen to your voice commands as well as to gestures. The voice recognition will even allow him to distinguish several people, so it will know when you’re with friends and invite them to a cup of tea. Works better than a boyfriend.