Researchers Develop Emotion-Simulating Robot

Burg Giebichenstein and Stefan Schwabe of the University of Art and Design Hall have developed Troblion, a robot capable of simulating emotions.

The sphere-shaped robot navigates about a sandbox, which is oval in shape. Its movement is decided by several set of programmed rules and every rule will be deciphered as an emotion type.

The scientists have provided added features to the robot for mimicking living beings. This includes sand layers that become firm as the robot navigates through its surroundings. The robot will acclimatize as time goes by, detach its skin layers to alter its appearance and will keep moving.

The developers have reported that the naked synthetic skin of the robot gets concealed in an innate structure. But as the layer grows, it gets bulkier. Once the robot is unable to move further, it distorts its silicon skin for removing the sand off. The remaining remnants from the sand layer are residual portions of accumulated dust, depicting Troblion’s survival in space.

Source: http://www.burg-halle.de