I’ve always been interested in robotics. This interest of mine became my hobby and part of my job when I started as an IT (Tech) teacher a few years ago. I started leading a robotics club at school and this field became even more intriguing and important to me and my activities. I was very happy when in October 2019 I found out about and visited an event in the Serdika Shopping Center (a mall in Sofia) – an exhibition and demonstration of robots. Some of the robots were accessible to the average user like me, I even got my hands on one and had the chance to program it a while back (a dancing Jimu). Others of the robots were extremely expensive, making the exhibition the only place where a normal person could touch them and see their abilities live. Now I will tell you a little about each of them. I will also show you pictures of the robots from my personal archive.
RoboThespian is one of the BEST actionable humanoids on the market designed for human interaction in a public environment. He is the first and most iconic robots from Engineered Arts and has an incredibly expressive range of movements and emotions. Its design is charming and elegant, and it looks like something out of a science fiction movie. It can be “inhabited” remotely, that is, someone can talk from a remote point through it, making it a good telepresence device.
The robot costs 59 000 pounds and can be purchased from the manufacturer’s official website. This robot is the most expensive one I have ever had the pleasure of seeing and touching.
When I saw the robot at the expo he was doing a stand-up show and telling programming jokes. It was answering people’s questions lightning fast and it was very witty, so I guess at this point it was being controlled and speaking through a human, hidden somewhere.
Promobot is an autonomous robot designed for business purposes. It is a real consultant, coming from the future. It is able to communicate with people on any topic, recognize faces, answer questions, move around avoiding obstacles, move its hands and head, show different things on its display and it integrates with devices and systems of third parties.
To date, several hundred Promobot robots are operating in 34 countries around the world. They work as administrators, promoters, greeters, museum guides, consultants, and many other things in various crowded places such as banks, shopping malls, museums, residential complexes, business centers, etc.
I met a Promobot at the exhibition (he was welcoming the guests at the entrance) and it first asked me if I wanted to go through the familiarization procedure, I said yes (“yes” because the robot only recognized English speech). He asked me about my name, I answered, and it even repeated my name and asked if it got it right. The strange thing is that he didn’t get my name wrong, even though it’s not English, and even though it was very noisy around us. It then took a picture of me and politely asked me to smile and then told me to write down my email address on its screen so it could send me the picture. It was very interesting and fun. I immediately received the photo and still keep it as a memory.
iPAL is a great robot for children, for the elderly, for schools and hospitals. iPAL remembers who owns it and is dedicated to making that person happy. The robot was invented in China, where parents are away from home for a long time and want their children to be cared for and to still learn new things. iPAL is the Chinese babysitter’s best helper. In addition, the robot is also used as a friend or helper for elderly or hospitalized people, as it can talk, play music and many other options that make a person feel less lonely and less bored.
The MISS FACE robot can beatbox, and also communicate with people, tell jokes ad stories and imitate human mimics and facial expressions. Unfortunately, it was placed in a large glass case at the exhibition and I didn’t get to see it in action, but there are a few clips on YouTube that show exactly what this interesting robot can do.
Time for my favorite robot from this exhibition. I have no idea why it became my favorite, considering it was one of the most non-interactive and useless ones, but it was very cute. Robofish swims and behaves like a real fish and even gets along very well with the other inhabitants of the aquarium. Made by MiniRobot, a Chinese company, this fish was very attractive to look at. It changed colors, bent and swam calmly and casually like a true sea creature. Although not particularly useful for everyday life, a robotic fish can mean that we won’t have to clean the aquarium as often, and that we won’t have to part with another dead fish as often. I imagine the home of the future to have a huge aquarium near the entrance, full of such robotic fish in different colors. It will be so cool!
The most impressive robot of all was the robot that played chess against three opponents at the same time. It’s called the Chessrobot, and it probably beats the price of the first robot I told you about. Each chess game piece has a special chip on it, and the boards probably have a sensor that tells which piece is which and where it has moved or is currently. The screen shows the robot’s memory, where it records whose turn it is on each board, where each figure is, etc. The waiting line to try your chess skills against this robot was huge, so I didn’t get to touch or test it, but I did watch it with great interest. It was mostly kids playing against the robot and it was leading convincingly, but I guess its algorithms can beat older and more skilled opponents as well.
The event was extremely interesting and enriching and I am very grateful and happy that I was able to attend it. I made clips of the robots, which I then merged into one general clip of the event. I have uploaded the video to my YouTube channel. You can watch it at the following link:
Technology Realm Resources 