Theres another, equally important, purpose to making humanoids such as Cog human: interaction with other human beings. For human/robot interaction, its good to have something that looks vaguely human
Theres another, equally important, purpose to making humanoids such as Cog human: interaction with other human beings. For human/robot interaction, its good to have something that looks vaguely human (because) we rely on social cues for communication, said Chuck Thorpe, a robotics expert from CMU. This premise is the basis of CMUs nursing robot Flo (after Florence Nightingale), which has a face thats designed to show emotions. The eyes double as cameras, which can process and relay images from an elderly persons home over the Internet. She also has a touch-screen mounted at the right height for someone seated.
One of the advantages of such a robot is that it has a thick skin; many people become cantankerous when they reach their eighties, said Engelberger, whose latest cause celebre is to create a robotic home help. Many elderly people have someone living with them, but will still try to move from the television to go to the bathroom by themselves. If you had a robot, you wouldnt care how many times you asked them to help you to the bathroom, said Engelberger.
Such a robot would also demand less financial and emotional consideration than a human being. In the US, it would rent at the same price as an upscale automobile around $500 per month and work 24 hours a day. Thats less than a dollar an hour for the robot. I had someone live with my mother and it cost US$140 per day and you have to give them eight hours off, transportation and clothe and feed them, he added.
Japanese giant Honda has been working to realise such a vision since 1986, when it began research on the Honda Asimo. Since the robot had to be capable of moving through furnished rooms and going up and downstairs, a key part of the project focused on the way in which the machine would walk. The result was iWalk (intelligent Real-time Flexible Walking) technology, which, like Cog, is capable of predicted movement control.
Honda finally released the first working version of the Asimo, a 6ft, 462lb Honda Asimo, in 2000, and it could walk forwards and backwards, climb stairs, keep its balance if given a shove, and respond to voice and radio commands.