China has reportedly created a new robot that supports a new algorithm that gives the humanoid human-like natural facial expressions.
Liu Xiaofeng, a professor at Hohai University in Jiangsu Province, and his research team created a humanoid robot with advanced facial expressions.
Liu stated that humanoid robots typically lack the complex and genuine facial expressions that humans have, leading to problems with engaging users smoothly.
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Facing this challenge, Liu and his team introduced an extensive two-step approach to enhance our autonomous emotional robot's ability to display diverse and realistic facial expressions.
Liu described how their method creates detailed robot facial expression images in the initial stage, with guidance from AUs. In the next stage, they create an emotional robot with various degrees of freedom for facial movements, allowing it to demonstrate a wide range of facial expressions that have been synthesized, according to sources.
Presented in the scientific journal IEEE Transactions on Robotics, the research introduces a novel method for synthesizing robot facial expressions based on Action Units (AUs), allowing for the creation of intricate facial expression images.
The researchers successfully overcome the lack of paired training data by utilizing facial AUs in a weakly supervised learning framework.
Scientists developed a specific network for mapping motor commands to connect expression images with a robot's lifelike facial reactions.
Chinese researchers improved the accurate prediction of specific motor commands from the robot's facial expressions by incorporating the actual motor positions as limitations.
The study confirms that the refinement process guarantees the robot displays precise and natural facial movements.
In conclusion, the suggested generation method's effectiveness is confirmed through qualitative and quantitative assessments of the Emotionet dataset for benchmarking.
Expressive Robots
Progress in expressive robotics persists, with recent reports demonstrating that Disney has developed a robot capable of displaying emotive movements similar to those seen in human facial expressions. Disney's two-legged robot smoothly navigates bumpy surfaces often seen in amusement parks with movement that is detailed as "vivid and energetic."
Disney Research states that although legged robots can navigate rough terrain well, designing and using them for entertainment purposes is challenging.
To engage human viewers, robots need to possess skills beyond just being stable and nimble. They also need to evoke emotions in their viewers while being engaging and emotional. Disney Research in Zurich, headed by research scientist Moritz Bächer, developed the robot using mainly 3D printing in under 12 months.
This bipedal robot stands out for its technological advancements. Priority is given to the character-driven mechanical design with expressive movements. It enables the robot to convey a wide range of emotions and form a stronger bond with viewers.
Additionally, utilizing reinforcement learning, the robot's control system guarantees its fluid and natural artistic movements when receiving commands.
Meanwhile, a complex animation engine seamlessly merges multiple animation sources to generate these signals. This results in movements that are both believable and full of energy.
Additionally, a user-friendly interface allows human operators to control the robot in real time, creating chances for interactive experiences and live performances.
