Often created to be professional service robots for interaction with human tools and customer service, humanoid robots can be used for a number of applications including inspection, maintenance and education.
Here, we take a look at the top 10 humanoid robots that have been developed.
10. Kime
Developed by Seville-based Macco Robotics, Kime is a humanoid robot bartender designed to serve food and beverages. The robot can serve a glass of beer in 23 seconds and is about 2 square meters. Kime is programmed to align the glass at right angles for properly pouring the beer and can serve approximately 300 glasses per hour.
9. Han
One of three of Hanson Robotics’ robots to make the list, Han is an expressive humanoid robot that made its debut at the Global Sources Electronics Fair in Hong Kong following its activation in 2015. The robot's primary focus is to help people find contentment. Han utilises voice recognition technology and multiple cameras to observe the environment and converse with them. The robot can display facial expressions with his face which is covered by frubber, a strong flesh-like rubber.
8. TALOS
PAL Robotics’ TALOS was created to help in industrial applications and can incur a load of 6kg with each arm fully extended. The walking biped humanoid robot is fully torque-controllable with torque sensor feedback in all joints, which enables powerful sensing and multi-contact motions. The closed-loop torque control can be used for whole-body control inverse dynamics and safe interaction with the environment.
7. Little Sophia
Another one of Hanson Robotics’ humanoid robots is Little Sophia, the little sister of its most famous robot, Sophia. Developed by the same team that developed Sophia, Little Sophia is 14” tall and is designed for educational purposes. Little Sophia makes learning STEM, Artificial Intelligence, and coding easy. She is a great companion for kids older than 8 years.
6. Nadine
Developed by Kokoro in 2013, Nadine features humanlike features including skin, hair and hands. The robot can perform a number of functions including simulating emotions, interacting with arm movements, answering questions in multiple languages and recognising individuals. This empathetic robot has 3D depth cameras, a microphone, and a webcam to gather visual and audio inputs.
5. Geminoid DK
Designed to be a realistic twin of Henry Scharfe of the University of Aalborg, the Geminoid DK is part of the Geminoid series of ultra-realistic androids. The robot was deigned in a collaboration between a private Japanese firm and Osaka University, which was supervised by Hiroshi Ishiguro, the director of the university’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratory. The main purpose of the development of this robot was to make the humanoid look completely like a human - it even features the real hair of Scharfe in its wig.
4. Junko Chihira
Toshiba’s Junko Chihira works full-time in a tourist information center in Tokyo and is he successor of another Android Aiko Chihira who worked as a receptionist in a department store in Japan. In 2017, the robot gained speech recognition capabilities and can respond to tourists' questions. Juncko will also work in the health care industry to support care for the elderly. Junko stands 5 feet 5 inches tall and resembles a 26-year-old Japanese woman.
3. Atlas
Considered by some as ‘the world’s most dynamic humanoid’, Altas was created to assist humans in dangerous tasks such as search and rescue missions. The robot was developed by Boston Dynamics and was funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The robot is 6ft tall and can perform impressive jumps and backflips.
2. Jia Jia
China’s first humanoid robot, Jia Jia was by the University of Science and Technology research team in China and is known for its realistic and attractive appearance. The robot can hold a normal conversation with a person with microbial facial expression powered by speech-generation algorithms and facial recognition technologies. This robot is also controlled entirely by cloud technology.
1. Sophia
Considered the most advanced, and most famous, humanoid robot, Hanson Robotics’ Sophia debuted in 2016 and is the first robot Innovation Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme. Sophia is also a global name having made appearances in worldwide conferences as well as daytime TV shows in many countries. As of 2018, Sophia's architecture includes scripting software, a chat system, and OpenCog, an AI system designed for general reasoning. In the same year, Sophia was upgraded with functional legs and the ability to walk.
