Service with a Smiling Humanoid

by James Yin

Imagine owning your own robot. One that would cater to your every wish or demand. A robot with the capability of perceiving your emotions and interacting with you like a best friend. A robot...say like Rosie from "The Jetsons."

This fantasy may soon become a reality as the research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) progresses. In the not too distant future, a humanoid robot might find its place in millions of households throughout the world, doing the laundry, baby sitting, taking care of the elderly, possibly making every family chore obsolete!

On the ninth floor of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, a seven year old project continues to unfold. Its aim, to create an interactive robot, otherwise known as a humanoid. Interactive, in that it is being "taught" how to act like a human so that it can communicate with humans.

MIT is the leading researcher in the world in the field of robotics. In 1993, researchers began this project which has become known for its robots, Cog and Kismet. Graduate students, Cynthia Brazeal and Brian Scassellati are two of the "parents" of these developing humanoids, nurturing this project which is bound to have a major impact on our lives in the future. TeenSpeak met with Cynthia and Brian at MIT in order to find out what we can look forward to.

Cynthia's work in robotics was recognized by NASA, which gave her a fellowship to develop robotics for scientific research prior to the MIT Cog project. Called autonomous robots, she and others developed insect-like designs which were perfectly suited to explore environments where man could not go to investigate: places such as the ocean floor beneath Antarctica, or the barren landscape of Mars. This work set the stage for MIT's own exploration in robotics, and so the Cog project started, followed a few years later by Kismet.