Newer and better robots are being developed all the time so that us humans may live in comfort and interact with them naturally. But a lot of people are put off by the mechanical beings because they’re not human enough. Leila Takayama, a research scientist at Willow Garage, is planning to fix this by teaching robots how to be more human and she’s getting the animation geniuses at Pixar to help.
Many companies focus on creating robots that look as human as possible, but this puts people off because they never look right and often make people feel uneasy (known as the uncanny valley). The designers at Willow Garage don’t want a human looking robot, they want a robot that looks like a robot but with a human personality and realistic body language.
It’s easy to see why they’ve hired some of the people at Pixar to help out. They did create Wall-E after all, who’s one of the most loved fictional robots. So what would these robots be taught? Manners and etiquette. Simple mannerisms that all humans (should) employ, such as making room for others in an elevator and moving out of the way when someone else is walking toward you. They even hope to accomplish robots that can memorize a face and then say hello when they next see you.
Robots that act in such a way are designed to make humans feel at ease around them. Many current robots jerk into an action after processing what to do, so they have to be taught to carry out actions that show humans they are thinking so as not to alarm anyone.
It’s a great idea that will make communication between robots and humans much easier. Rather than robots flashing a meaningless error message, they should be able to express what is wrong visually, making problem solving a more natural affair.
Anyone fearful of these robots becoming too human should not worry. The skills being taught will only put in place common sense, which they don’t currently have. If it means we end up with lots of Wall-E’s in our workplaces and homes, I have no problem with that whatsoever.