Session Summary

Abstract

This session presents four recent researches of humanoid. The first one introduces new SONY humanoid “QRIO”, developed as a small entertainer humanoid in home environment. People expect a partner robot to behave a spontaneous motion, memory of interactions, multi-modal dialogue, reflective behavior to the world and user situations. The system consists of 5 parts: Perception, Memory, Internal State Model, Behavior Control, and Motion Control. The memory part of the system has two aspects; the short-term memory for perception composition with limited view angles, and the long-term memory, which provides some level of intelligence in the dialogue with human. In order to act properly in a real environment, QRIO system employs the situated behaviorbased architecture. Fujita discusses how the software architecture should be designed, and describes the autonomous behavior control architecture which serves to integrate multi-modal recognition and motion control technologies. In addition to the presentation at the session, Fujita demonstrates the real QRIO interactions with audiences. Small size humanoid is rather easy to handle than full-size humanoid, it provides very effective tool to examine the software development in real environment for behavior, intelligence , and interactions with humans.