Humanoid Robots Part 2: The Present

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Welcome back dear readers! I see you want to know more about Humanoid Robots…. No worries! We are here to continue where we left off. The 21st century till 2013 has indeed furthered the development of Humanoid robots by leaps and bounds but 2014 onwards were nothing less than miraculous… a culmination of hundreds’ of years’ worth of knowledge and efforts.
These past 5 years are what gave us the most well-known and advanced Humanoid Robots of our time. But let’s take one step at a time- first we will see the timeline of developments and then a list of Humanoid Robots that exceeded everyone’s expectations.

2014-2019

Three advanced humanoid robots were unveiled in 2014- Manav, India’s first 3D printed humanoid robot, SoftBank’s Pepper Robot and Singapore’s Nadine, a socially intelligent robot that can replicate human gestures and facial expressions. 2015 gave us Sophia, a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics, Hong Kong, which made quite some waves after its release.

In 2016, Stanford University’s Ocean One completed its first mission. It dived at a depth of 100 m off the coast of France to search for treasure in a shipwreck (La Lune, sank in 1664). Also, TALCOS, a fully electrical humanoid robot from PAL Robotics was unveiled in 2017. Same year December, world’s first humanoid mass production factory, AkinRobotics, was set up in Turkey.
A study from July, 2019 covered the increasing participation of Humanoids in workplaces and their popularity in market. And every month, there are a number of innovations reported in the field relating to either deep learning or natural language usage and a lot of other aspects. All in all Humanoid Robots will continue to grow and maybe in near future we’ll get more or even better than these –

POPULAR HUMANOID ROBOTS AT PRESENT

ROBEAR

It is developed by a collaborative team of scientists from RIKEN and Sumitomo Riko Company Limited, with the aim of being a possible solution to the problem of increasing shortage of caregivers in Japan. If you have seen the 2014 movie Big Hero 6, then you must remember Baymax, the adorable Robo healthcare assistant. To say the least, ROBEAR is like real life Baymax and is even described as the ‘machine with a gentle touch’.

NAO

This 23-inch robot looks super adorable and made its debut in the 2008 RoboCup. Its parent company Aldebaran was acquired by SoftBank Robotics in 2015 which now produces this robot which has been adopted in over 70 countries for research purposes.

PEPPER

Pepper, developed by Softbank, can read primary emotions such as joy, sadness and anger and use it to interact naturally with humans. It can also interpret the facial expressions and tone of a person along with other body language signs. It can also remember the faces and preferences of people it deals with and because of this ability; Pepper has been employed in a number of fields that need interacting with customers frequently such as retail stores.

PETMAN

PETMAN is the short for ‘Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin’ and it was developed by Boston Dynamics US. Known as the fastest bipedal robot, it stands 6 ft. tall and weighs 80 kilos. It can walk up to 7.08 km/h and its gait is the most human-like ever seen.

SOPHIA

The first Humanoid Robot to be granted the citizenship of a country, Sophia unveiled in April, 2015 became a citizen of Saudi Arabia in 2017. She is one of the most well-known Humanoids, having made appearances in a number of television shows and delivered lectures in universities around the world. Sophia is also named as the world’s first United Nation Innovation Champion and has appeared on the cover of top fashion magazines.

Jia Jia

Also, USA’s Ocean One and Atlas (the athletic robot) along with India’s Mitra and Japan’s Junko Chihira and Erica are some of the more talked about Humanoids as well. China’s interactive humanoid Jia Jia, is one of the most realistic looking humanoids and can interact fairly well using facial expressions, eye movements and hand gestures.