7 Top Humanoid Robots revolutionizing the Robotics Industry

Everyday we crash with a headline saying, ‘robots serving in restaurants’ or ‘robots in hospitals' or titles like ‘a robotic nurse’ or ‘robot servant in the house’. Such news drives us crazy, humanoid robots are the latest advent of AI.

 

A humanoid robot also called an android, is an artificial creature that is designed to perform human-like activities like walking, talking, playing, interacting and so on. Sometimes it can resemble a human-like appearance, sometimes it just carries a resemblance to the human body showing metals and wire.

 

In this blog, we will read about some interesting humanoid robots of the world. We will also study their physical details and chief characteristics. 

 

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Top Humanoid Robots

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Top 7 Humanoid Robots

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According to the statista report of June 2021. Over the past decade sales of industrial robots have increased sharply.

 

In 2018, the sales of robots were 422,000 units and in 2019 it was noted as 373,000 units. Though, each robot is different of its kind. But the top humanoid robots of the world are listed below:

 

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1. ASIMO

 

ASIMO is a humanoid robot developed in Japan, by Honda in 2000. Honda started working on humanoid robots in 1986 and revealed its first masterpiece in 1993. Later, on 31 October 2000, the company introduced its first humanoid, ASIMO.

 

ASIMO is the acronym of Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. Aldo, the name was chosen in honor of Isaac Asimov. Currently, the robot is displayed in the Miraikan museum in Tokyo, Japan. 

 

The robot is 130 cm tall and weighs 54 kg. It contains a 51.8 V lithium battery that has a backup of one hour. It also consists of a stacked die, a processor, a signal converter and a memory cell.

 

The robot ASIMO has special ability to recognize moving objects, postures, gestures, sounds, faces, and surroundings. It can also distinguish between the faces and voices. It is designed to assist and help the people. It can run, dance, hop and play soccer. 

 

ASIMO is an ambassador to the robotic world and has made several public appearances to excite the humans about robotics. After  2000, Honda has worked a lot on the robot, but in 2018 the company stated to cease further experiments on the technology and utilize the lifespan of the robot to the best. 

 

2. Sophia

 

Sophia is the world’s first robotic citizen. The humanoid lady robot Sophia was developed by Hanson company of Hong Kong. The company unveiled and activated this human robot on February 14, 2016.

 

 In 2017, the robot was given a full citizenship of Saudi Arabia and became the first robot to avail the citizenship of any country. 

 

Sophia was designed to look like Audrey Hepburn, the wife of the creator. It is filled with all beauty measures including porcelain skin, slender nose, high cheekbones, an intriguing smile, and beautiful and expressive eyes. Her eyes change color according to the light. 

 

The characteristics of Sophia includes its ability to follow faces, sustain eye contact and identify the individuals. It also has the ability to walk and talk. 

 

The most sustaining feature of Sophia is its lifelike skin and its ability to emulate more than 60 facial features. Many times in history the robot has made a public appearance, interacting with the public and interviewing humans.

 

It is designed as a good fit to serve healthcare, customer service and education. Sophia can also draw and paint, including portraits. Sophia is followed by 9 robotic siblings which are also created by Hanson. 

 

3. Nadine

 

Nadine, the only social and friendly robot. It is a ginoide robot. The body features of Nadine have been modeled on Professor Nadia M. Thalmann. It was created by Kokoro, Japan in 2013.

 

It is said to be the successor of robot Eva, created by Hanson Robotics in 2008. The software platform of Nadine has been built by Institute for Media Innovation, Nanyang University, Singapore.

 

Nadine owns strong human-like features, like natural looking skin and hair. It can answer several questions in different languages and has the power to remember the people on the basis of its previous conversation.

 

The robot is highly social and can answer the following questions. It can change its personality as per the conversation. With a total of 27 degrees of freedom, the robot can freely move its upper body and can depict many facial expressions too. It can remember the particular facts and events related to each individual.

 

Nadine is developed using cut edge robotics. It is equipped with 3D depth cameras, a microphone and a webcam to collect inputs. The robot is designed to play the role of a receptionist or a personal coach.

 

It can deal with the special needs of the persons by reading books for them, sending emails, and attending skype sessions.

 

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4. Erica

 

Erica, once again a robot from Japan. Erica is expanded as Erato Intelligent Conversational Android. It was created by Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, Osaka University.

 

The height of this lady robot is 166 cm. It is categorized as the most beautiful robot in the world. Erica was designed to be the most advanced and beautiful humanoid of the world. Activated in 2015, the robot has special speed abilities compared to the other robots of the world. 

 

Unlike Sophia and ASIMO, Erica can’t walk. But it can interact well with others. It has the ability to change its facial expressions according to the conversation. While listening to others, like humans it blinks its eyes and nods its face. 

 

The robot is fed with 15 inbuilt infrared sensors in her eyes. These sensors help in tracking any movement. It also has inbuilt speech-generation algorithms and facial recognition technology. It can relax its face, neck and waist up to forty-four degrees of freedom. Currently, the robot is working as a news anchor.

 

5. Junko Chihira

 

Junko Chihira is a gynoid robot developed by Toshiba, Japan. It is developed using the technology developed by Hisorshi Ishiguro. The robot Junko was unveiled in October 2015.

 

It is also known as ‘Trilingual Android’ due to its ability to speak three languages, Japanese, Chinese and English. Apart from this, the robot can also communicate in sign language. It is an upgraded version of Aiko Chihira, her younger sibling.

 

Having the face of a 26 years old woman, Junko has an upgraded version of machine control. It has excellent interactive skills, life-like expressions and pre-written speech commands.

 

The robot is equipped with several technologies like speech synthesis technology and natural language processing. It can answer the random and several questions of tourists and locals.

 

Junko Chihira currently works as tour guide in the local tourist center, Aqua City Odaiba, Japan. while its other two siblings work as receptionist and health nurse respectively. 

 

The robot has also an upgraded version of Kanae Chihira. Unlike Junko, Kanae Chihira can operate in any language. The smoother movements and intelligence capabilities make the Chihira family a perfect version for the tourism and travel industry.

 

6. FEDOR

 

FEDOR expanded as Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research. It is also known as Fyodor the robot. It is a Russian humanoid robot. It is manufactured by Android Technics. 

 

FEDOR is the only robot after Kirobo to spend 10 days in the International Space Station assisting the astronauts there. Launched in 2015, the robot FEDOR underwent several upgrades till 2019.

 

Originally known as Robot Avatar FEDOR was intended for rescue missions. It can replicate the movements of anyone wearing a robotic exoskeleton suit.

 

The robot can perform several functions like firing handguns, doing push ups, handling social media accounts and driving a car. The robot is specially designed to perform assistance and deliver astronaut functions. There is a similar robot to FEDOR named T-HR3 which was introduced by Toyota in 2017.

 

7. Jia Jia

 

Jia Jia also known as Robot Goddess of China is the first humanoid robot of China. Unveiled in 2016 and developed by the University of Science and Technology of China, Jia Jia is considered as the most beautiful woman of China.

 

The robot can talk and reply to people according to the situation. The leader of the creator team Chen Xiaoping announced that robots can perform and deliver minimal functions like an assistant in restaurants, hospitals and households.

 

It has several human-like features. The most remarkable ones are eye movements and lip synchronization. 

 

Jia Jia is embedded with speech-generation algorithms and facial recognition technologies. It can catch several gestures, emotions and attributes. With a pinch of humor in its conversation, the robot called its creator as its lord.

 

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Every other nation is working hard to improve and add on its robotic technology. In the coming era, we can expect a world where robots are assisting manpower in each and every field.