A system developed by the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science (ICMC) at USP in São Carlos (SP) allows a robot to reproduce human gestures. The research aims to assist patients in physiotherapy. Another idea is to promote an interaction with elementary school children and help in learning mathematics.
Tests are done on the robot Nao, purchased from a French company in 2010 through resources of the Foundation of Research of the State of São Paulo (FAPESP). Using the Kinect, a motion sensor developed for the Xbox 360 game console, the humanoid recognizes movements of the human body to perform two major tasks.
One is the realization of some pre-defined behaviors, such as walking (forward / backward, sideways and rotational), chair stand and run some gestures. The other is a direct imitation in real time (mime) replicating the movement of the human form as similar as possible.
The Nao robot performs these tasks through the perception of the state of some joints of the body, such as shoulder, elbow, hip and knee - besides the neck and hands.
"Eventually, with the help of this technology, you can make use of robots to perform activities that are not present. You can control the robot at a distance for him to check something simple, for example, if the keys are in the closet, "explains Fernando Zuher, a doctoral student who led the study.
Friendly interaction
Professor Roseli Aparecida Francelin Romero, the ICMC, says one of the goals of the system is to make the interaction man / robot more friendly and allow the performance of the machine in various applications.
Very soon, she says, the robot can act as a personal trainer, correcting movements and exercises developed by the person. With the advancement of studies, the goal is that within a year the humanoid act effectively in the therapy of patients.
"The physical therapist would not have the need to be watching the elderly or patients during the sessions. And they would not need to move. The idea is that the specialist serious movement on a thumb drive, and the person has a robot at home. It would help to make the moves, to execute the fix and encourage, "he explains.
According to Romero, the clinics could acquire own robots. A model similar to Nao humanoid costs around £ 30,000, but the trend is that this value decreases, she says.
"Longevity is increasing in general. Today, in America, we have lack of physiotherapists. That will end up happening in Brazil as well, where there are shortages of skilled labor in various areas. Physiotherapy is only an example, but robotics is entering in various sectors, "says the teacher.
In educational settings, the use of the robot would be an encouragement to children in learning concepts such as math, more easily. According to Romero, there are schools in the State of São Paulo who use this practice to make the study even more enjoyable.
"The robots will participate in the life of the human being with the intention of helping. Do not see them replacing manpower, quite the contrary. People today have to interact with many things at once and are not able to do well. If they have a robot that is looking, watching what she should do in the best way possible, I think this will promote better quality work performed and will bring a huge benefit to society in all sectors, "says the researcher.
Soccer Robots
Another plan of the ICMC is the creation of a football team of humanoid robots to participate in the RoboCup, a competition that brings together the best teams in the world and will be held in Brazil in July 2014, in João Pessoa (PB), in parallel to the Cup World Cup.
The Computing Group Bioinspirada ICMC own tradition in robot soccer. The Warthog Robotics team, a partnership with the ICMC Engineering School of São Carlos (EESC) USP, has participated in the RoboCup 2011 and also won national tournaments in the category Very Small Size.
