“America” the Robot Wakes Up With Fluid, Lifelike Movements
“America” the robot is either lost down deep in the Uncanny Valley, or scaling out of it, depending on the observer. Either way, the facial movements of the cutting edge robot are an astonishing step forward. Here’s more from Engadget:
[Ameca] appears to have a fully articulated head, face, neck, shoulders, arms and hands, but Engineered Arts notes that none of its robots can walk — though the company is studying that capability. It’s not clear how Ameca’s facial expressions were animated, but some form of motion capture seems a good bet. The company said that Ameca is a “platform for developing AI,” but is letting others develop the necessary machine learning algorithms.
Engineered Arts has previously said that it uses “powerful, silent, high-torque” motors to drive Mesmer’s body and head movements, with everything designed from scratch to work together perfectly. It also uses sensors like cameras, depth sensors, LiDAR and microphones. To control movements, it has developed browser-based software that works much 3D apps used for VFX or gaming animation.
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