Kobian is a
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
created by scientists at
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902.
The university has numerou ...
in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. It is capable of displaying expressions of
emotion
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...
and was developed to realize culture-specific greetings.
It can also simulate human speech including the movement of the lips and the oscillations of the head.
Kobian is based on the WABIAN-2R robot and the emotion expression humanoid robot called WE-4RII and is 1,470 mm tall and weighs 62 kilograms.
The robot's two eyeballs are outfitted with
CMOS cameras.
It is a bi-pedal standalone robot with control units such as motor drivers placed in the robotic head, making this particular part larger than the human head. The robotic head for the Kobian-R, the newer and more downsized version of the robot,
has 24 degrees of freedom (DoFs) and a blue facial color due to an electro luminescence sheet. The original Kobian robot has a DoF of 48.
Two versions of the Kobian-Rs have been built - a Western and a Japanese variant - to develop the system that produces the robot's facial cues.
The Kobian robot has another version called Debian, which has a slightly different facial and body color to provide these robots distinctions when interacting with each other and with other subjects.
The color has no cultural significance.
See also
*
Robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...
References
External links
A robot displaying human emotion has been unveiled By Emma Barnett, Technology and Digital Media Correspondent, UK Telegraph, 23 Jun 2009.
Bipedal humanoid robots
Social robots
Robots of Japan
2000s robots
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