Year by year, robots become better and better at negotiating each time more complex social interactions with humans. However, much as their social intelligence has improved, these interactions still suffer from a lack of transparency. In other words, unlike humans, robots are not capable of understanding and explaining their actions in intentional terms, which prevents them from having more effective communication with humans. To the joy of robots and humans alike, this challenge is now addressed by the What You Say Is What You Did (WYSIWYD) project, launched earlier this year.

The project, coordinated by the SPECS lab at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, will develop an autobiographical memory that can store data streams obtained by the robot in the form of a consistent personal narrative of the interaction history. Furthermore, the researchers intend to devise a mechanism of conversion of this memory data into meaningful linguistic structures that can be subsequently expressed in speech and communicative actions through a specific channel dubbed WYSIWYD Robotese, thus improving mutual understanding between robots and humans.

WYSIWYD is an interdisciplinary effort that will draw from the fields of robotics, cognitive science, psychology and computational neuroscience. The project largely builds on the previous success of the efAA project, also coordinated by SPECS. WYSIWYD is scheduled to run for 3 years, and hopefully will bring about a qualitative change in human robot interaction and cooperation as well as unlock new application areas in robotics.

The main research platform for the project is everybody’s favourite iCub robot, developed by the Italian Institute of Technology in Milan, which is also one of the universities participating in the collaboration. iCub will be used in combination with another amazing piece of technology Reactable, an interactive table interface.

iCub has recently celebrated its 10^th anniversary. Watch the video below to see how the robot and its capabilities evolved throughout a decade.

Visitors of all ages were invited to attend a number of  talks on subjects ranging from healthcare and educational robots to civil applications of drones and autonomous submarine vehicles. In addition, those interested could take part in a series of workshops, which encouraged people to learn about the practical side of robotics.

iCub playing pong with children

Another highlight of the Meeting was the national final of the VEX Robotics Competition, where several teams faced each other in an interactive game that motivated them to find creative solutions to complex engineering problems.

The biggest attraction of the event, however, was the exhibition area that allowed the visitors to get a glimpse of the future of the service robotics. Although modest in size, the exhibition featured some remarkable examples of robotic technology, mainly provided by local research institutions.

Teo robot from Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial

Adele Robots, for instance, showcased an adorable baby seal robot called Paro, which is already used for therapeutic purposes in hospitals and aged care facilities, where it helps personnel calm patients and improve their social behaviour. The exhibition also featured the iCub robot from the Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems group (SPECS) at Pompeu Fabra University. The robot received tons of deserved attention, especially from children. Teo, a 3D mapping robot from Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, and Aisoy1, an educational robot from Aisoy Robotics, are just two other examples from this year’s exhibition.

The fifth edition of one of the most influential events for the European robotics community took place last week from March 12-14 in Rovereto, Italy. As always, the 3-day program was jam-packed with dynamic workshops, seminars and talks, making it possible for robotics stakeholders from the whole of Europe to discuss the future of robotics research and industry, find new potential business applications and expand their professional network.

iCub and COMAN side by side at the Forum exhibition

This year’s Forum revolved around the theme “City of Robots” and explored a wide range of human interactions with robotic technology – from healthcare and industrial robotics to AI and robot cognition. The Forum exhibition was held at the MART Museum of modern art, but some robotic demonstrations were also distributed across the city.

Some activities also aimed to promote the wider acceptance of entrepreneurship among robotics researchers. The Entrepreneurship Workshop, for instance, provided several teams with top-notch entrepreneurship coaching and gave them a chance to demonstrate their ability at pitching innovative ideas to a panel of investment judges. The euRobotics Forum Entrepreneurship prize awarded to the most convincing team went to the Robocone project, which envisioned a swarm of robotised cones capable of performing automatic beaconing and signalling tasks on the road without human intervention.

The Forum is organised by euRobotics AISBL, a Brussels based non-profit association, specifically designed as a Public-Private Partnership with the European Union. The collaboration with the European Commission is thus one of the association’s main priorities aimed at developing and implementing a future research and innovation strategy in the field of European robotics.

Next European Robotics Forum will be held in March of 2015 in Vienna, Austria.

This week, from March 10-11, over 2000 people from a variety of sectors involved in research, innovation and science gathered to take part in the 2nd Innovation Convention. The event, held this year in Brussels, is a key initiative of the Innovation Union, which aims to make Europe a more innovation-friendly environment – an idea that lies at the core of the European Union’s 2020 strategy.

This year’s Convention attracted a whole range of inspirational speakers from top CEOs to young innovators and provided a platform to debate and inform innovation policies as well as a great networking opportunity.

A remarkable highlight of this year’s convention was a special selection of “Innovation Showcases” which gave the visitors a chance to explore a number of interactive demonstrations related to some of the most fascinating ideas, products and services such as 3D-printing, nanotechnology and supersonic transport. It is worth noting that the majority of the showcases were made possible – directly or indirectly – by EU-funded research projects. The field of robotics that excites us most was represented this year by the efAA project, which develops new ways of having meaningful social interactions with robots. The showcase featured an iCub robot that engaged visitors in a social musical game.

The closing ceremony was marked by the announcement of the European Capital of Innovation (iCapital) prize, which this year went to Barcelona “for introducing the use of new technologies to bring the city closer to citizens”. The prize was established by the European Commission as a means of encouraging cities to make efforts to promote innovation and improve the quality of their citizens’ lives.

From November 6–8, nearly 5000 of Europe’s top researchers, engineers, industry representatives, politicians, journalists, entrepreneurs, and students gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania to share insight and future visions for the future of ICT in Europe. The global event also provided  an inspiring setting for the discussion of European ICT policy as well as networking opportunities for business, research, and innovation groups.

The event —the largest in Vilnius during Lithuanian’s presidency of the EU Council— folds into a greater European initiative: the EU Horizon 2020 programme. This visionary plan, combines EU funding for both scientific research, and innovation. This year’s event included: an international conference, an exhibition, a networking session, an investor forum and events for students and junior researchers.

The exhibition involved over 180 participants from the ICT community. CSN (the Convergent Science Network) was well received with an exhibit co-organized by the project efAA (Experimental Functional Android Assitant, – EU Robotics Unit of DG Connect- ). The interactive installation titled “The Machine and I“ displayed graphics and drawings that provided futuristic visions of robots and their roles in human society. The project efAA, represented at ICT 2013 by the research group SPECS - UPF – Barcelona and by IIT, the Italian Institute of Technology, gave the iCub a chance to express it’s musical side as it entertained exhibit visitors through musical games as the DJ droid.

Over 40 international presenters covered various topics: from broadband Internet to cybersecurity and nanomaterials to artificial modeling of the human brain. Students and junior researchers had the opportunity to meet many of the conference speakers and other ICT-savvy representatives, later sharing their experience through social media.

The investor forum provided a perfect place for small and medium-sized ICT business owners and entrepreneurs to present their projects to investors, participate in special training programmes, and discuss key issues with business experts and corporate investors.

Events like this get just about everyone thinking: how will future technologies change the lives of those in generations to come?

The  HRP-4C Humanoid  robot was developed by The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) of Japan and Kawada Industries. As you can see above, this robot can put on quite the show! Created mainly for entertainment purposes, this robot has even hit fashion runways! Actroid- DER3, developed by Osaka University and the robotics company Kokoro, is also being used for similar purposes.

Another pretty face below- the mask bot which uses a simple projection of a real human face to achieve its life-like appearance, was developed by AIST and  the Institute of Cognitive Systems (ICS) at the Technische University in Munich .

Some humanoids can even play music! Check out a robot released by Toyota back in  2007 that can play the violin.

A joint project between the MIT Media Lab and Drexel University put on this performance using 4 HUBO robots which were developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Many robots are developed for use as research platforms. Nao, developed by Aldebaran is currently being used in all sorts of research at elementary schools, hospitals and universities around the world.

MIT Media Lab’s Nexi is giving researchers insight into human-robot interaction. While it couldn’t pass for a human, the robot does manage to display rather convincing facial expressions.

CB2 is another robot developed by Osaka University. Similarly to the iCub (developed by the European RobotCub consortium), it expresses child-like behaviours and learning abilities to help researchers study human cognitive development.

Of course there are plenty more humanoids out there! What’s your favourite android?

At the Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems group (SPECS) at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona, it’s just your average Jam session. Fellow music makers include a PhD student, a robot and the Reactable! The demonstration featured in the video above merges two projects into one: The Reactable and the Experimental Functional Android Assistant  (EFAA), which is using the iCub robot as its main research platform.

Robot-lovers are likely already familiar with the iCub, a European robot famous for being able to interact with the world much the way a small child does- by learning from others around it. As  robots become increasingly ubiquitous  in our daily lives, the social compatibility of such robots gains more importance and in order to meaningfully interact with humans, robots need some real-world social intelligence.  For this reason robotocists are working hard to endow machines like the iCub with novel perceptual, behavioural, emotional, motivational and cognitive capabilities.

While there has been  a lot of research centred on human-robot interaction, another interesting line of research investigates not only  how humans interact with robots but also how different forms of technology  interact with each other. Within this context, robots are rather special because they’re capable of using some forms of technology much the way humans do.  The video above features the iCub simultaneously jamming with musician and scientist, Andre Luvizotto, on the Reactable.

Beginning as a research project by the Music Technology Group at UPF,  the Reactable is a new electronic musical instrument  that enables musicians to experiment with sound by changing its structure and controlling  its parameters in a highly original way. Recently turned into a spin-off company, Reactable Systems, the amazing piece of technology is  now being used by various musicians around the globe, including world renown Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk.

While the iCub’s got a ways to go before becoming a Reactable pro, guided by Andre, it’s capable of identifying, grasping and positioning objects that symbolically represent different musical instruments. The result is sweet, sweet music- made by one man and two machines!

We know it takes creative minds to inspire new technology, are we now on our way to making creative technology that can inspire us?

You may want to read a Spanish article in the El País Technology blog about a Robot artist… and if you’re curious about more cutting edge technology, check out the European Flagship Initiative: Robot Companions for Citizens

Many mammals have an amazing ability to recognize objects under distinct conditions. Tasks that may seem simple are in fact only possible thanks to the great complexity of the mammalian cerebral cortex. One of the most complex stimuli mammals are challenged by are faces.
Natural vision systems remain invariant to things like shifts in position, rotation, and scaling so that  if you were to look at a picture of your friend’s face upside down, it wouldn’t cause you to mistake them for somebody else!

Due to the increasing use of social robots, scientists today are keen on advancing facial recognition software. In order to do this, researchers have been working on  models of natural visual systems; however, turning the effortless intricacies of the cerebral cortex into hard wires and code is tricky business. A lot of facial recognition software  systems are based on a large dictionary of features stored in memory that must be filtered by artificial neurons through out various layers. Through these means, invariance to factors such as position and scale can be achieved but it’s often at the high cost of increasing the number of connections between the layers of the network which results in bulkier hardware.

To tackle this issue, researchers from the SPECS lab at Pompeu Fabra University employed a model of an encoding scheme called the Temporal Population Code (TPC) in an artificial system. Applied as part of the facial recognition feature of the iCub robot, the TPC model has important advantages over many other models used in the past.  It is wire-independent, allowing the system to accommodate  various streams of complex information and it can also be used as a generic framework for object recognition tasks regardless of input. Beyond facial recognition, the TPC model can be generalized to other tasks such as hand writing recognition.

The iCub seems to be a fan of the TPC model. In the face recognition tasks, its  speed of encoding was compatible with the human visual system with a correct ratio of 97 % ! These results are included in a paper titled: The encoding of complex visual stimuli by a canonical model of the primary visual cortex: temporal population coding for face recognition on the iCub robot by: Andre Luvizotto, Cesar Rennó-Costa, Ugo Pattacini and Paul Verschure. It was one of the five finalists for best conference paper in the 2011 International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics

The event is being celebrated from the 12th -26th of October to mark the  the millennium of the Kingdom of Granada. With over 600 experts  from 22 countries of the
Mediterranean basin, the event is a unique international experience
that is focused on highlighting  emerging talent and innovation within Mediterranean countries  and the important role of ICT towards sustainable economic development. The event also aims to foster  international cooperation, respect for human rights, and the overcoming of cultural barriers.

What does icub have to do with this?  icub was present with Paul Verschure from the SPECS lab (Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems) at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.The SPECS lab is involved in several European projects that are currently using the icub and other robots as a platform to study the mind and brain. Verschure and icub were also there to present the FET Flagship initiative Robot Companions for Citizens, an ambitious initiative which aims to promote our sustainable welfare through the creation of sentient machines.

Check out the links on some of the other European projects SPECS is involved in:

EFAA Experimental Functional Android Assistant:a project that contributes to the development of socially intelligent humanoids

SMCS Extending Sensorimotor Contingencies to Cognition: a project that aims to establish computational models  as controllers for autonomous robots and investigate learning and adaptivity in in artificial systems

 GOAL-LEADERS Goal-directed, Adaptive Builder Robots: a project which aims to develop biologically-governed  frameworks for the next generation of adaptive service robots.

iCub is a robot capable of  interacting with the world much the way a small child does . It is used to look at how experience and the learning of physical acts can affect the development of cognition.  Among other capabilities, iCub is able to:  crawl, grasp objects and express emotion through facial expressions.  Check out the article in nature featuring the icub project leader Giulio Sandini who is also the founder of the LIRA-Lab (Laboratory for Integrated Advanced Robotics) at the University of Genoa and director of research in the Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences department at IIT (the Italian Institute of Technology). Giulio is also a consortium member of the Coordination Action of the Robot Companions for Citizens FET Flagship Initiative.