Russian-Made Home Assistant Robot Almost Ready to Make Transition From Lab to Mass Market
Engineers from Vladivostok have designed a home assistant robot. It can already recognize human faces. The designers promise to teach it soon to do various things like guarding an apartment or babysitting. Ksenia Kolchina is reporting on other functions of the electronic creature is supposed to get.
Adam the Robot is greeting us with a wave of his hand. So far, the top manipulators are the most flexible limbs of the electronic creature. He perplexedly stretches his arms out and tragically wrings them, observing the world with his dynamically-lit eyes.
Alexander Ganyushkin, designer: "In future, it will reflect the emotions of the robot. It will be able to imitate the contraction and dilation of the pupils, to show discontent, in case he's annoyed, or joy. It can also show its status, whether the battery is low or everything's OK". Soon, Adam will take his first steps and start talking.
Adam is constantly learning new things. The latest function allows it to recognize and track a human face. Here I'm walking to the side and it turns its head as if it were watching me.
Nearly all parts of the robot are 3D-printed. Its circuits were specifically manufactured at an electronics factory. Adams future lies in serving science. Vladivostok is one of the Russian robotics capitals. This robot will be a perfect tutorial model . But if there is a demand, Adam can make a perfect home assistant.
Alexander Ganyushkin, designer: "We have considered this option. Adam can be a guard or a babysitter. He can be your errand boy. You can be anywhere in the world and connect to the Robot and see what's going on home and talk to your family".
Alexander's team is a Skolkovo resident. Technopark is supporting Adam's rapid evolution. Now, he's being connected to the VR. Programmers and artists from Vladivostok are working at the laboratory to create video games for the world market.
Pavel Miroshnichenko, head of the VR-laboratory: "We want to make it support HTC Vive controllers designed specifically for Virtual Reality. You put the goggles on, do a grabbing motion with the controller the hand is raised, lowered, and the robot manipulates these actions. We control the robot via VR".
An important stage for Adam's developers is transforming the prototype into a commercial product. So far, the robot will be shown off at various scientific exhibitions. Here's he is in Paris, for example, at Innorobo 2016.
Ksenia Kolchina, Alexander Savelyev Anton Gvozdetsky, Vadim Telegin Vesti Far Eastern office.