Science Article

LIKE PCs, robots may soon become a key part of our everyday lives, but they present unique communication challenges that PCs do not. So roboticists are turning to people who have already solved many of these problems - actors, animators and dancers.

Nao Robot (France)

MASKED THEATRE The 50-centimetre-tall, white plastic Nao humanoid (see photo) looks adorable. But with such a plain, rigid face - just two big lights for eyes and a pinhole of a mouth - how does the bot do it? Julien Gorrias, a "behavioural architect" at Aldebaran Robotics in Paris, France, which makes the Nao, had solved the same problem in his former life as a masked actor by using expressive body movements. "The whole body was involved in making the mask live," he says. His insights have helped give Nao a tangible personality. "You have to feel like it is someone," he says. "Not a human, but someone."

HRP-4C Robot (Japan)

CARTOONS Humans can often guess what another human is about to do. Pixar's animated characters seem to anticipate their own actions: staring hungrily at a piece of cheese before grabbing it, say, creates the illusion of a thought process that makes a character believable. When the team created animations of the PR2 carrying out a task, onlookers were more certain of their interpretation of the robot's behaviour if its actions portrayed forethought. They also described the robot as more approachable.

INTELLIGENCE The lowest level of robot 'intelligence' is a simple automaton device. My definition of an automatoIn is a device where there is absolutely zero decisions made no matter the given environment. They are simple devices where the action it does is repetitive and automatic. A simple circuit with a motor or a combination of gears and a spring could easily be an automaton.

DANCE Humans naturally move in subtly different ways depending on their emotions and intentions, but unravelling how we do this in order to program it into a robot is tricky. The most important is describe how the timing, strength and angle of a dancer's movement will convey a different inner intention or emotion.