Robot with real human gestures

VISITORS to the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) in Fusionopolis will soon be greeted by a robot at the reception area.

The robot, known affectionately by the team which worked on it as Olivia, can hold a decent conversation with a visitor and help them find the right person or right place to go to within the building.

For now, it can converse only in English, although it has the capability to do so in Mandarin and Malay.

But Olivia comes with a multitude of sensors to help it listen, speak to and interact with people. Some of the technologies used are award-winning ones internationally.

Olivia has eight microphones all around its head, allowing it to hear where a person who is speaking to it is standing.

The speech recognition system can help the robot hear people more clearly even in noisy environments.

Its eyes can track many humans at one time and identify them by the colour of their clothes.

It can even track people's eyes and lips so that it knows when the person is talking to them.

This allows Olivia to 'know when to keep its mouth shut' - as one of its creators puts it - so it does not interrupt a person when he or she is talking.

Olivia is also programmed to be able to perform human gestures with its head, arms and body - all of which have varying degrees of freedom to move.

It has been taught 20 different gestures based on real human actions.

While Olivia is currently a bit of a heavyweight at 45kg, the team is trying to build a slimmer, smaller version which is about half the present size.

'It'll make her more ladylike,' joked team leader Dr Li Haizhou.

Dr Li was quick to point out that Olivia was not meant to replace a real receptionist, but to complement one.

If the visitor has a query which the robot cannot help with, it will apologise and direct the person to a real receptionist instead.

Another robot, Mika, works more like a coffee boy.

It can operate in a home or office environment and can fetch a cup of coffee from the coffee machine.

The team is still tweaking the robot's grip so that it does not crush the cup or hold it too loosely so it slips through.

The robot comes with a rather heavy base so that it does not topple easily.

Both Olivia and Mika have a hearing range of about 1m to 2m.

For now, Mika's main function is to get drinks for people, but the team aims to make it perform other household chores such as ironing clothes or setting the table.

benjamin@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times.