Robot scientists at Aachen University in Germany working have discovered a better approach than making robots act like humans. They make them act like puppies. In a recent paper, the researchers programmed a robot arm to communicate five states to the human user, including 1) greetings; 2) prompting the user to take part; 3) waiting for a command; 4) an "error condition"; 5) shutting down. They did this by copying the body language of dog puppies. As a result, they found, people both recognized the gestures and also preferred them over more abstract gestures. Let’s hope they don’t teach the robots to pee on the carpet.
Robot gestures are going to the dogs
Robot gestures are going to the dogs
Robot gestures are going to the dogs
Robot scientists at Aachen University in Germany working have discovered a better approach than making robots act like humans. They make them act like puppies. In a recent paper, the researchers programmed a robot arm to communicate five states to the human user, including 1) greetings; 2) prompting the user to take part; 3) waiting for a command; 4) an "error condition"; 5) shutting down. They did this by copying the body language of dog puppies. As a result, they found, people both recognized the gestures and also preferred them over more abstract gestures. Let’s hope they don’t teach the robots to pee on the carpet.