The Affetto robot is a head model of a child aged 1-2 years. It is designed to work as a nurse with living people, thanks to which it will be possible to study the process of interaction between people and mechanical creatures
And this in turn will help design self-learning robots.
Affetto is being developed by young researchers from Osaka University (Japan) Hisashi Ishihara and Yuichiro Yoshikawa, who work in the laboratory of Professor Minoru Asada. The latter oversees the large-scale project ERATO, of which not only Affetto is a part, but also seven other robotic platforms that copy children under the age of 5.
Robot emotion card
The similarity of the front part of the robot's head with a live face was achieved through the use of pneumatic muscle drives, which allow partially copying our facial expressions. The head has 12 degrees of freedom. Its surface is covered with a tough but flexible plastic that mimics the structure of human skin.
Robot without "skin"
Promotional video:
However, excessive humanity can play a cruel joke with Affeto - due to the psychological phenomenon known as the "sinister valley". This effect describes the dislike and disgust people can experience when they see a robot or other humanoid object very similar to us. In any case, this can be verified with appropriate tests.
The results of the work were presented at the 28th annual conference of the Japanese Society of Robotics.