Robots were invented so that they can help in the performance of a variety of tasks. A robot is an automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human.
A social robot is an autonomous robot that interacts and communicates with humans or other autonomous physical agents by following social behaviors and rules attached to its role.
Moreover, people interacting with a social robot may hold very high expectancies of its capabilities, based on science fiction representations of advanced social robots. Below you’ll find 10 amazing social robots.
1.Sony’s Aibo Robot Dog:
Sony is bringing back its iconic robotic Dog Aibo. The new Aibo is powered by artificial intelligence and can bark, wag its tail, chase pink balls and learn new tricks like giving its owner a high five.
Initial version of AIBO robot was released by Sony in 1999 i-e around 18 years back, and it was discontinued in the year 2006.
The new Aibo Robot Dog can form an emotional bond with members of the household while providing them with love, affection, and the joy of nurturing and raising a companion.
You can pre-order the new aibo through the Sony Store, and it will be released in January 2018.
The price of this new robot dog is bit high. The Aibo robot ERS-1000 itself is priced at more than $1.7K, but you also need a subscription plan to connect to the cloud service that powers Aibo’s AI.
2.Anki’s Cozmo:
San Francisco-based company Anki has started selling its palm-sized robot named Cozmo. It will be available for $180.
Check it in Amazon.
Smarts aside, Cozmo’s heart and soul rests within his emotion engine, which evolves as you develop a bond. He’s brought to life with complex facial expressions, a host of emotions, and his own voice and language. His dynamic soundtrack matches his mood and corresponds with the games and activities, elevating playtime to a uniquely cinematic experience.
3.Pepper:
The Japanese company SoftBank has announced that its humanoid robot Pepper that can recognize and respond to human emotions
Pepper can remember faces and is programmed to recognise human emotions.
Pepper will not only be able to read emotions, it has evolved to have emotions. In addition to Pepper’s emotion recognition functions, Pepper has capabilities to generate emotions autonomously by processing information from his cameras, touch sensors, accelerometer and other sensors within his “endocrine-type multi-layer neural network.”
There will be around 100 apps available for download at launch. The Pepper robot will sell for 198,000 yen ($1,600).
These robots will be manufactured by FoxConn. And, the Chinese online retailer Alibaba is also partnering. Both are investing $118m in SoftBank’s robotic division and will take 20% shares in the company.
4.Kirobo Mini:
Japan’s largest automaker Toyota will begin selling a 10-centimeter-tall (4 inch) talking robot called Kirobo Mini across Japan in early 2017. This Robot is Priced at around $390, and it is small enough to fit into a car cupholder.
Toyota is billing Kirobo as capable of responding to human emotions while engaging in conversation and moving its head and hands.
Toyota will position Kirobo as a communication partner developed for companionship just as surveys of Japanese consumers show a declining affinity for automobiles. One poll by Japan’s automakers association released in April found about 30 percent of respondents under age 30 had no interest in cars at all.
5.Georgia Tech robot:
The researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have paired a small humanoid robot with an Android tablet. Kids teach the Robot how to play Angry Birds.
This project is designed to serve as a rehabilitation tool and to help kids with disabilities.
The researchers see their robot-smart tablet system as a future rehabilitation tool for children with cognitive and motor-skill disabilities. A clinician could program the robot to cater to a child’s needs, such as turn taking or hand-eye coordination tasks, and then send the machine home.
parents don’t always have time or enough patience for repetitive rehabilitation sessions. But a robot never gets tired or bored.
6.Rovables:
Researchers from MIT and Stanford University introduce Rovables, a miniature robot that can move freely on unmodified clothing. The robots are held in place by magnetic wheels, and can climb vertically. The robots are untethered and have an onboard battery, microcontroller, and wireless communications.
They also contain a low-power localization system that uses wheel encoders and IMU, allowing Rovables to perform limited autonomous navigation on the body. In the technical evaluations, the researchres found that Rovables can operate continuously for 45 minutes and can carry up to 1.5N.
The researchers propose an interaction space for mobile on-body devices spanning sensing, actuation, and interfaces, and develop application scenarios in that space. Their applications include on-body sensing, modular displays, tactile feedback and interactive clothing and jewelry.
7.KUBO Robot:
KUBO is the Educational robot for kids aged 3 and up.
It is the World’s first puzzle-based educational robot. It can Make coding as simple as a jigsaw puzzle.
KUBO accelerates learning in coding, mathematics, language, and music through its TagTile programming language, which helps pre-school and primary school children explore and understand new concepts in a screenless, tangible environment.
Kubo is a pretty simple robot – it’s about the size of a can of soda and has two wheels that allow it to roll around a desk or table.
Kubo reads the puzzle pieces using an RFID technology – each piece has an individual embedded RFID tag.
8.Moley Robot:
UK based Robotics company “Moley Robotics” has unveiled the world’s first Automated Kitchen at Hanover Messe, the premier industrial robotics show in Germany.
Moley’s Robotic system features a dexterous robot integrated into a kitchen that cooks with the skill and flair of a master chef.
Stirring, adjusting the temperature, pouring and adding ingredients are all basic skills for a chef but they’re slightly harder to achieve for a robot.
However, that’s not the case for this pair of robotic hands, which could be set to revolutionise cooking and kitchen operations.
This Robotics system does not cook like a machine – but it captures human skills in motion, and recreates it for cooking the receipe.
9.NAO Humanoid Robot:
Aldebaran Robotics and Nuance Communications, Inc, announced that Aldebaran’s renowned NAO Robot will integrate Nuance’s conversational voice capabilities to deliver a more natural and compelling experience between humans and robots.
NAO is Aldebaran’s successful , fully — programmable and interactive humanoid robot equipped with state — of — the — art motion, vision, tactile and audio capabilities. NAO can walk on different surfaces, track and recognize faces and objects, express and understand emotions, and react to touch and interact by voice.
10.JIBO:
In MIT professor (Cynthia Breazeal) has developed Jibo, a social robot that can act as a personal assistant, speak, learn, and interact with people in a ‘humanized’ fashion.
This robot is being marketed as “the world’s first family robot.”
“Jibo” comes packed with algorithms to learn and adapt to people’s habits. It can communicate in tones and cues closely resembling human interaction. It can take photos and video, and deliver hands-free messages and reminders. It can even read and tell stories.
Standing a mere 11 inches high and weighing just 6 pounds, Jibo is designed as a bridge between robotics and the home.
A limited number of Jibos are available for preorder on Indiegogo for $499. The developer version costs $599. Consumer Jibos will ship to backers in 2015, with a full rollout in 2016.
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