Life-Like Robot Baby Designed to Foster Parenthood in Japan
- 14 years ago
And finally, Japanese graduate students have created a baby robot. They hope young people can interact with the robot and experience the joys of parenthood and to encourage more Japanese to start a family.
A group of Japanese graduate students at the University of Tsukuba are hoping to teach the joys of parenthood with a baby robot.
Named Yotaro, this automated doll can sleep, wake up, giggle, sulk and doze off just like a real toddler, and even smile if you rub his belly.
Yotaro is meant to feel, sound and react like a newborn baby.
His facial expressions and body movements change according to the pressure applied to his body parts.
Touch sensors under his silicon skin are connected to other technology that changes its expression.
Yotaro has won many international design awards.
[Hiroki Kunimura, Project Leader]: Japanese male
"We wanted to create a new type of robot that is soft, cuddly and cute…We'd like people to experience the innocent, joyful expressions typical of small babies. Through this experience, it would be great if some people started feeling that they wanted to have their own baby, if they started feeling that working is not everything and if they started feeling that they want a family."
To make him seem more human, the team has programmed the robot to sneeze, have a runny nose and even wiggle.
A group of Japanese graduate students at the University of Tsukuba are hoping to teach the joys of parenthood with a baby robot.
Named Yotaro, this automated doll can sleep, wake up, giggle, sulk and doze off just like a real toddler, and even smile if you rub his belly.
Yotaro is meant to feel, sound and react like a newborn baby.
His facial expressions and body movements change according to the pressure applied to his body parts.
Touch sensors under his silicon skin are connected to other technology that changes its expression.
Yotaro has won many international design awards.
[Hiroki Kunimura, Project Leader]: Japanese male
"We wanted to create a new type of robot that is soft, cuddly and cute…We'd like people to experience the innocent, joyful expressions typical of small babies. Through this experience, it would be great if some people started feeling that they wanted to have their own baby, if they started feeling that working is not everything and if they started feeling that they want a family."
To make him seem more human, the team has programmed the robot to sneeze, have a runny nose and even wiggle.