Robohub.org
 

AJung Moon on “Do robots need heads?”


by
15 August 2013



share this:

Robohub.org-baxterAre you curious about what your future robotic assistants will look like?

My bet is that by the time you buy your very first robotic butler, it will have a friendly head on it that moves. In fact, it would be a good idea to make robots with heads if they are intended to share spaces and objects with people. That’s because the head is a really expressive part of our body we naturally use (a lot) to convey essential information to each other.  Robots will need to do the same if they are going to hang out with us soft-tissued human beings at our homes and offices.

For example, when people are attending to something, they tend to be looking at the thing they are attending to. People also look at the direction they are headed when they walk, and make eye contact when they talk. People nod with their head when they want to show agreement about what is being said. Without these nonverbal cues from the head interacting with each other would be much more difficult, because we wouldn’t know what each other are doing.

Rodney Brooks, a pioneer in robotics and now Chairman and CTO of Rethink Robotics, had this in mind when he built Baxter. Although Baxter’s arms are as bulky-looking as its traditional industrial robotics predecessors, one of the innovative components of it is the fact that it features a moving head that makes its interaction with not-so-trained users very intuitive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OIxWMTrGl8

If robots are to do meaningful things around us in a safe manner, it’s essential that we know what the robot is attending to, where it is headed, and what it is about to do – a lot of which a robot head can help with. That way, we won’t have to be a roboticist to know when it is safe to be around a robot holding on to a giant knife to make you cucumber salad. <optionally embed cucumber slicing robot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvDXrZX-SCA



tags:


AJung Moon HRI researcher at McGill and publicity co-chair for the ICRA 2022 conference
AJung Moon HRI researcher at McGill and publicity co-chair for the ICRA 2022 conference





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 121 – Adaptable robots for the home, with Lerrel Pinto

  16 May 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Lerrel Pinto from New York University about using machine learning to train robots to adapt to new environments.

What’s coming up at #ICRA2025?

  16 May 2025
Find out what's in store at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, which will take place from 19-23 May.

Robot see, robot do: System learns after watching how-tos

  14 May 2025
Researchers have developed a new robotic framework that allows robots to learn tasks by watching a how-to video

AI-powered robots help tackle Europe’s growing e-waste problem

  12 May 2025
EU-funded researchers have developed adaptable robots that could transform the way we recycle electronic waste, benefiting both the environment and the economy.

Robot Talk Episode 120 – Evolving robots to explore other planets, with Emma Hart

  09 May 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Emma Hart from Edinburgh Napier University about algorithms that 'evolve' better robot designs and control systems.

Robot Talk Episode 119 – Robotics for small manufacturers, with Will Kinghorn

  02 May 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Will Kinghorn from Made Smarter about how to increase adoption of new tech by small manufacturers.

Multi-agent path finding in continuous environments

  01 May 2025
How can a group of agents minimise their journey length whilst avoiding collisions?

Interview with Yuki Mitsufuji: Improving AI image generation

  29 Apr 2025
Find out about two pieces of research tackling different aspects of image generation.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence