Fixed place anthropomorphic sociorobots

Abstract

Fixed place anthropomorphic robots are primarily used for research purposes, and consist of an upper humanoid torso from waist up. Very often they are only robotic heads and faces, or legged robots not designed to walk. Typically, they are socially interactive robots that can function as partners, peers or assistants. Most fixed place sociorobots are designed with primary goal the interaction with people, and have no embedded skills for performing specific tasks. The purpose of this chapter is to outline three sophisticated fixed place robots created at MIT (namely Cog, Kismet, and Leo),and to describe three other upper-torso sociorobots, viz. Nico (Yale University), Barthoc (Bielefeld University), and Simon (Georgia Tech). Then, three small-size entertainment sociorobots developed by the University of Hertfordshire (KASPAR), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ROBOTA), and NEC Corporation (PaPeRo), are presented. These robots give a good picture of the state-of-art of fixed-place research, entertainment or therapy robots.