Teknerd Blog

This is a blog detailing advanced robotics and artifical intelligence.

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Dancing and Singing robot

The tech behind this robot is unique.  They originally set it up to use Vocaloid software and developed their own face motion capturing software to capture the nuances of the human movements during singing.  This presentation is not half bad in my opinion, but they need to work a bit more on making the movements fluid and human like.  They are close with this one in my opinion.  I also hope they improve its hand and make them prehensile, the hands on this robot look terrible.

The other video explains the tech behind the robot in more depth, the last video shows how it can sing along with someone playing the piano.

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Robotic Mouth

This robotic mouth is a bit old (from 2011) but it demonstrates the push in robotics to mimic human traits and features.  I tried to find other examples similar to this one and this sadly the only one I could find.   I think the tech behind it is clever but I also think its a terrible implementation.  I am not sure why they chose the method they did to manipulate the throat chamber, it seems to be wires or even muscle wire would be better than a set of levers.  I think this facet of robotics needs to continue to be researched.  I dont really like the sound of robotic and synthesized voices, if they could reproduce human sound and speech using a robotic artificial larynx and a mouth that would be ‘utterly’ (pun intended) fantastic.

This video explains the tech in detail, there are other videos demonstrating the sounds it makes, but honestly in my opinion it kind of sucks.

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This isn’t an android. However it could be argued that it may be a ‘laboratory’ to attempt to closely simulate android behavior. It may well be a good way to form the basis of software to transfer to an android body.

This project, created by married couple named Teruyuki and Yuma Ishikawa, is apparently an attempt to create a ‘virtual human’ avatar. The site is in japanese so I dont know the details of or how far they have gotten in developing its personality. In any case the results are impressive to say the least.

https://www.telyuka.com/

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Interview with an Android: ‘Android’ - Live From Cannes 2015 This is Asuana, I don't know a whole lot about it.  I don't think it is autonomous at least not in this example. I believe it is acting in as purely an actroid.  The speech pattern sounds far to natural for me to believe it is an AI.  I am pretty sure that it can be put in an autonomous mode if desired but I suspect it has no real AI to drive it. 

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Meet 15 year old Android Robot Girl, Asuna I remember seeing this video awhile ago and was really amazed at the realism.  However it doesn’t speak so that kind of limits my admiration for it.  I believe it does speak but they didn’t have it speak in this demonstration.

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An effect of emotional expression in a conversation English This is my favorite look for Erica.  This particular interview is probably one of the better examples of its conversational ability.  This is an interesting exchange with a student, near the end of the conversation it actually seems offended with the flow of the conversation.  It is actually quite remarkable however I think a ‘normal’ human would tend to hide their offense a bit more subtlety but it does depend on the person I suppose. 

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Erica: ‘I want to be more like a human’ I have seen several ‘interviews’ with Erica and frankly the reason I dont think it is quite as advanced as Sophia from Hanson Robotics is it would ask the same questions and tell the same stories with each person that interviewed it.  However the illusion of speech interaction is quite impressive. 

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Robot Department Store Receptionist Starts Work in Tokyo I believe this is the first ever autonomous android set up to interact with real consumers at a department store.  I have mixed feelings about this one, I think it needs a bit more work. 

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Toshiba's Lifelike Singing Robot I dont know much about this one, but it is Toshibas attempt at cracking through the uncanny valley.  Apparently this is what they term ‘a companion android’ and is capable of sign language and more advanced hand and arm movements.  I dont think they quite have it yet but its facial movements arent too bad. 

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Robot’s Delight Japanese robots rap about their Artificial Intelligence I had to share this.  Be warned that it is extremely cheesy but they cleverly mix in some pretty advanced robotic research terminology into the rap. 

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Actroid DER2 fembot - Face expressions This android is an ‘actroid’ the concept being that it mirrors actual human movement with a set of controls being manipulated by a real person.  This was the first video I saw years ago where I began to see the potential for realism in androids.  This android is not wholly realistic by any means but its movements and expressions more closely resemble and actual person because they are shadowing an actual person.  This kind of project in my opinion was an important first step in creating realism in autonomous androids.

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My conversation with an AI sexbot.  This is Harmony in action.  It is kind of funny but you can clearly see the AI and the fluidity of movement is in its infancy.

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Meet ‘Harmony’ Great New Female Robot/sexbots Which Will Replace Women.  Yeah I am going there.  It is something I would be interested in once they perfect this.  This android is made by ‘Real Doll’ (no I do not own one, probably never will).  What is intriguing about this real doll is that they animated it and are attempting to simulate a personality that you as the user can tailor to your needs and desires.  I find that amazing if they can pull it off.  So far, with every demo I have seen of it I remain unimpressed. The AI is a bit clunky and lacking and the uncanny valley response is quite high.  On the plus side it is an absolutely amazing looking android and would border on ‘sexy’ looking but as for passing a Turing test, they have a LONG way to go.

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Emotionally intelligent robot comes to life 7 March 2016.  I need to mention Nadine only because of the amazing AI they implemented with it.  I dont find this android realistic or attractive, it is also deep in the uncanny valley when it moves and talks.  However if you were to close your eyes and talk to it, the creators claim it would most likely pass a Turing test due to what they claim is its ability to interact with emotional content.

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Meet the World's First Completely Soft Robot.  The study of soft robotics is very interesting, it is mainly based on geometric modeling to allow either fluid or air to shape the way the robot moves.  I feel it creates a much more realistic looking response.  I suspect that in the future the actuators they currently use in more advanced humanoid looking robots will be replaced with soft robotics.  Right now it is a bit tricky to design them to move exactly the way you want them to. It takes a pretty good 3d modeling and simulation program to design these types of robotics properly.

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Musculoskeletal Robot Driven by Multifilament Muscles, they are promising I believe but appear to be very jerky and hard to control.  I am not 100% certain I am right about this, but this technique appears to be a set of tightly controlled air muscles acting as a group very similar in nature to McKibben type muscles.I think the material has a very low plasticity because they muscles do not appear to have a containing mesh.  If I am wrong it might be sort of like electrically controlled muscle wire, but the filaments look a little to big for that to be true.

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Advanced Human Robot Actuator, this is the most incredible display of forced feedback I have ever seen.  The design of this, if scaled down somehow could definitely be applied to some advanced android.