Robot capable of expressing human-like dispositions

Scientists at Poland's Wroclaw University of Technology have developed a robot called EMYS, which expresses human-like dispositions, such as anger, surprise, confusion joy, and sadness.

The EMYS (EMotive headY System) robot has been devised to make robotic care assistants, guides, entertainers or home-helpers, which are friendly and responsive to humans.

Designed by Professor Krzysztof Tchon, the automaton uses an animated neck, three discs and a set of eyes to express a range of nine different emotional states.

- The construction of the robot can be divided into three parts - the balancing platform, torso with hands and the head. The balancing platform is interesting because it behaves very naturally, the way a human behaves. Constructing the arms was quite a challenge because they had to be both light and capable of certain gestures. The most interesting part is the head comprised of two discs and moving eyes and allows the expression of certain emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger - said Jan Kedzierski, who constructed the robot.

As non-verbal communication is a vital part of human interaction, EMYS's creators say developing robots capable of communicating without speech is potentially a huge breakthrough in android evolution.

With this EMYS android, a human-robot interaction is raised to a higher level. The researchers say they are working towards a future where people and machines will interact in an entirely natural way, the Serbian national broadcasting television and radio company RTS reports.