By Milcah Tanimu
Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough by developing a robot capable of displaying highly expressive human-like facial features. The innovation, led by Professor Liu Xiaofeng from Hohai University in Jiangsu Province, represents a significant advancement in humanoid robotics.
The development of this robot comes after Liu and his team formulated a new algorithm designed to generate intricate facial expressions on robots. According to Liu, the challenge with existing humanoid robots has been their inability to replicate the subtle and authentic facial emotions found in humans, which impacts their ability to engage users effectively.
To address this issue, the researchers implemented a two-phase method aimed at enhancing the realism of facial expressions in autonomous robots. In the initial phase, they generated images of complex facial expressions using artificial units. The second phase involved creating a robot with multiple degrees of freedom in facial movements, enabling it to replicate these detailed expressions.
The study revealed that the team employed a latent facial attribute space to separate expression-related cues from unrelated ones, focusing solely on the former for generating expressions. In the next phase, they developed a robot capable of embodying these refined expressions with a high degree of movement freedom.
This advancement is expected to improve the emotional interaction between robots and humans, potentially transforming their role in various applications.
