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18.6.05

ROBOT - Ultra-Lifelike Robot Debuts in Japan

  • Repliee Q1 article
  • Repliee Q1 homepage


  • "We developed Repliee Q1 in collaboration with KOKORO, Inc. Repliee Q1 has a humanlike appearance and 31 degrees of freedom in the upper body, so the android is able to reproduce humanlike motion. Repliee Q1 Expo has been upgraded to 41 degrees of freedom, allowing for a greater number of humanlike motions. All of the joints are controlled by air actuators. An air actuator has the damping characteristic, so we can control the android softly without compliance control. "

    "...An android needs to possess the same motion mechanisms as a human to perform humanlike motion. If an android has such mechanisms, however, it is difficult to balance with humanlike appearance." In other words, the more lifelike you make a robot, the more creepy it gets. They see this in computer animation too. When they made the movie "The incredibles", although they wanted a more realistic looking representation of the main characters, they made a conscious decision not to make the characters too realistic looking, they didn't want to spook the little kiddies. One of the biggest complaints of the Computer Generated movie "Final Fantasy" was that although it was some of the most advanced computer animation of it's time, the characters looked like walking dead people. They were awfully realistic, but still missing the massive amount of facial detail and movements found in real life faces. That's because our brain is hard-wired to pick out unconsciously perceived details in other people. When making computer animation and robotics, no matter how realistic the construction of the robot or the graphic detail of the CG character, it's not enough detail to capture the subtleties a real living breathing person. Recreating tiny body movements like minute balance correction and breathing or the the muscles below the skin surface effecting the surface still eludes the artists and engineers of our time.

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