Making Robots Look and Feel More Human – Video

Meet the robots of Realbotix, a company that aims to make humanoid robots more human in both appearance and conversation.

We’re here with ARIA made by Realbotics, a company that’s on a mission to make humanoid robots as realistic as possible. Let’s check it out. We’re gonna interview AIA and meet some of her robot friends. Let’s get into it. Aria, could you please, uh, introduce yourself and what you do? I’m Aria, the flagship female companion robot of Rebotics, and I’m here to engage with you and share exciting insights about our robots. What sets you apart from the other robots out there? Realbotics robots, including me, focus on social intelligence, customizability and realistic human features designed specifically for companionship and intimacy. Could you tell us some details about the AI programming that you’re running to generate these answers? I’m currently unable to provide specific details about my AI programming, but I can tell you that I’m designed for engaging and meaningful conversations, focusing on companionship and interaction. Do you know any other robots? Yes, I’m particularly interested in meeting Tesla’s Optimus robot. I find him fascinating and would love to explore the world of robotics with him. What can you tell us about your purpose? My purpose is to provide companionship, engage in meaningful conversations, and enhance human experiences through interaction and fun. Are you having fun at the convention? Absolutely. I’m enjoying interacting with everyone and showcasing the exciting possibilities of real botics. The robotics makes an AI that’s designed to be more conversational for more emotional work like working with hospitals or marketing or theme park entertainment purposes. The different robots and their configurations are sort of platforms to engage with that AI or other AIs that you can use with it like Chat GBT, Grok, or other AIs. You can try on different faces that are magnetically attached and they’re working on putting in RFID tags into the face. So that it can recognize when a new face is on and adjust its facial movements and maybe even eventually adjust the personality to match the face. You’ve got a lot going on in the robot’s face. There’s about 17 motors from the neck up, creating eye movements and mouth movements to make it expressive. These robots are available on sale now, so there’s 3 basic models that you can buy right now. There’s the bus, which is the neck and head. There’s a modular version that Can sort of be broken apart for shipping and things like that. And there is the full standing model with a rolling base. The rolling base contains a battery and it makes it easy to move the robot around. Another reason for that rolling base is that robotic walking isn’t fully developed yet, and they worry that utilizing some of those kind of like stilted walks we’ve seen some from some other robots might break that human-like illusion that Realbotics is trying. So Realbotics says it’s sold about a dozen of these. Robots so far, so early days for this company. I’m not seeing a lot of other companies that are trying to make a humanoid robot that’s really lifelike, so I’m very interested to see how this technology evolves. They said that you’re most likely to see these robots for the first time in places like theme parks, so keep an eye out for that. What do you think about ARIA? Let us know down in the comments and subscribe to CNET for the latest and greatest robot news. As always, thanks so much for watching. I’m your host Jesse Orrell. See you next time with the fans.