Anki is the company behind the famous Kid’s Robot “Cozmo”. It is now releasing an autonomous Home Robot named as Vector. Vector is the most advanced home robot ever made. He’s a curious little guy who is aware of his surroundings. He can see, hear, and feel, allowing him to react naturally to the world around him.
Vector is happiest when he’s helping. He’s eager to accommodate your requests and answer your questions. He isn’t a fully grown robot butler capable of doing your taxes, buttering your bread, or writing a position paper on the future of robot/human relationships, but he’s a helpful little guy who puts his whole self into helping you out.
Vector’s little frame is packed with an immense amount of technology that brings him to life. He takes in the world using a variety of sensors and then responds realistically. This means he can read a room, hear what’s happening, recognize people and objects, find his charger, navigate his space, and avoid obstacles.
Vector responds to your voice. Just say “Hey Vector” to activate him and he’ll instantly perk up. His backpack will light up as soon as he hears you and he’ll be ready for further instruction.
Vector’s lifelike character is possible thanks to the advanced technology inside him that lets him observe the world and respond in a realistic way. His processing power comes from the Qualcomm 200 processing platform. His sight is delivered by an HD camera with 120-degree ultra-wide-angle field of view. He has directional hearing thanks to a beamforming four-microphone array. He doesn’t run into things because he’s rolling around with an infrared laser range finder. He makes direct eye contact with his high-res color IPS display. He’s rounded out by a 6-Axis IMU and a WiFi connection.
The four-microphone array that allows Vector to not only hear, but perceive where a sound is coming from and focus on it, or the edge-detection sensors that not only help him stay on a table, but identify when he’s correctly positioned on his charging cradle.
Vector’s integrated HD camera has 120-degree ultra-wide field of view, which he uses to see the room he’s in, identify people and objects, and detect motion.
Vector also uses an infrared laser scanner to track distance between objects and map his environment as he explores, and a four-microphone array that can pinpoint positional audio. These and other sensors provide the inputs that drive Vector’s emotion engine, with each data point influencing whether he is happy, sad, curious, or any other emotion.
Each emotion’s level informs how Vector will react to stimuli. When he detects his owner, he’s excited and eager to help. When he detects a sound behind him, he’ll rotate 180 degrees to investigate.And if his drop sensors detect the table’s edge, he’ll be momentarily surprised—then remember that area as a boundary before he moves to another area to explore. This system of movement, exploration, and emotional stimuli form a foundation that we apply Vector’s personality to.
The usual stuff like timers and the weather works with Vector’s voice assistant, but it all happens with a little more whimsy. Ask it the weather, and it will turn to face you. If it’s raining, little water droplets will cover its face and it’ll get annoyed. When a timer goes off, the whole thing convulses like it’s being shaken by bells. It’s all a little bit like Wall-E, which is fitting as Pixar has been a major inspiration for the company.
Vector has more than a thousand animations he can perform at any one time, including multiple variations for common emotions or expressions, because variety is the spice of (robotic) life.
Using Autodesk Maya, animation software typically reserved for Hollywood studios, we can fully pose and tweak Vector’s interactions, then render out to a physical robot in real time. Each animation requires thoughtful consideration of how Vector, as a character and as a physical object, should react to the inputs from his various sensors. It’s this marriage of robotics, AI, character development, and perceptive animations that truly brings Vector to life.
News Source: https://www.anki.com/en-us/vector
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