Scientists hoping prototype robot will perform tasks with good grace

A GROUP of scientists who set out to build a robot with human social skills may have improved on humanity - their creation courteously steps aside for people, smiles during conversation and politely asks directions.

The six-foot robot, named Grace after Graduate Robot Attending Conference, will wander a symposium on artificial intelligence that begins today, where it will demonstrate its good manners.

It will try to sign in at the registration desk, find a conference room, give a speech and answer questions.

Grace, a drum-shaped contraption with a digitally animated face that appears on a computer display, is the work of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Philadelphia.

Grace is the only autonomous machine - one without remote controllers - entered in the mobile robot challenge at the American Association of Artificial Intelligence’s national meeting in Edmonton, Alberta.

Other robots will be attending - some clad in tuxedos and serving hors d’oeuvres - in an attempt to show off the latest machines that can move safely and naturally among people.

Grace was designed by her principally male creators to be female. But in form, at least, she is not much of a woman. It has no arms or legs. Instead, its barrel-shaped torso, sheathed with sonar panels and black plastic bumper guards, rolls on wheels.

The robot’s feminine attributes are limited to a voice that sounds like an automated telephone operator’s and a heart-shaped cartoon face with big blue eyes and high cheekbones. But the voice and lips are poorly synchronised, making Grace look like a character in a poorly dubbed film.

Tomorrow, a team of nervous designers will watch as Grace attempts the challenge.

The robot’s laser and sonar components are supposed to sense distances and steer Grace around people. Its camera vision system and speech recognition software are supposed to recognise people’s hand gestures and words.

And its artificial intelligence brain is supposed to gather all the information and tell the machine how to react.

“This is so far the hardest thing I’ve done in my career”, said robotics engineer Bryn Wolfe, a 17-year industry veteran involved in the project.

Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Reid Simmons gave Grace a 50% chance of completing all her tasks. Simmons, who said the robot was made female because he believes women communicate better than men, solicited drama students to teach Grace how to act like a human.

Ultimately, the Carnegie Mellon team hopes to teach Grace to perform socially by recognising a person and asking questions.