An interactive robot having mechanical torso, limbs, and head assembled for movement with multiple degrees of freedom to enable life-like movements and responses. The robot's head may further include LED displays as the eyes and mouth, and a speaker associated with the mouth. These features enable life-like audio and visual responses, including complex facial expressions and conversational audio interaction.

A dialogue apparatus includes a display unit, a first dialogue control unit configured to display a first character on the display unit and simulate a speech function of an external communication robot capable of having a dialogue to conduct the dialogue with a user, a second dialogue control unit configured to display a second character on the display unit and conduct the dialogue so as to mediate the dialogue between the user and the first dialogue control unit, and a transmission unit configured to transmit, to the external communication robot, dialogue information about the dialogue conducted by the first dialogue control unit and the second dialogue control unit.

An autonomous companion mobile robot and system may complement the intelligence possessed by a user with machine learned intelligence to make a user's life more fulfilling. The robot and system includes a mobile robotic device and a mobile robotic docking station. Either or both of the mobile robotic device and the mobile robotic docking station may operate independently, as well as operating together as a team, as a system. The mobile robotic device may have an external form of a three-dimensional shape, a humanoid, a present or historical person, some fictional character, or some animal. The mobile robotic device and/or the mobile robotic docking station may each include a fog Internet of Things (IoT) gateway processor and a plurality of sensors and input/output devices. The autonomous companion mobile robot and system may collect data from and observe its users and offer suggestions, perform tasks, and present information to its users.

A feature acquiring section 100 obtains feature data of a target person. A matching degree deriving section 110 derives a matching degree between the feature data and feature data of a registered user stored in a feature amount database 120. An identifying section 130 determines that the target person is the registered user in a case where the matching degree is greater than or equal to a first threshold, and determines that the target person is not the registered user in a case where the matching degree is less than a second threshold smaller than the first threshold. An action management section 140 sets an action mode of an acting subject according to the matching degree.

A monitor is installed in an eye of a robot, and an eye image is displayed on the monitor. The robot extracts a feature quantity of an eye of a user from a filmed image of the user. The feature quantity of the eye of the user is reflected in the eye image. For example, a feature quantity is a size of a pupillary region and a pupil image, and a form of an eyelid image. Also, a blinking frequency or the like may also be reflected as a feature quantity. Familiarity with respect to each user is set, and which user's feature quantity is to be reflected may be determined in accordance with the familiarity.

A method and apparatus for controlling a social robot includes providing a set of quantitative personality trait values, also called a “personality profile” to a decision engine of the social robot. The personality profile is derived from a character portrayal in a fictional work, dramatic performance, or by a real-life person (any one of these sometime referred to herein as a “source character”). The decision engine controls social responses of the social robot to environmental stimuli, based in part on the set of personality trait values. The social robot thereby behaves in a manner consistent with the personality profile for the profiled source character.

A guide robot can include a travel part to move the guide robot, a touch screen and a camera, a sensor to detect an approach of a user, and a voice reception part to receive a voice. The guide robot further includes a controller to display at least one digital signage while the guide robot is traveling, in response to detecting the approach of the user, stop the traveling of the guide robot and transition the camera from a deactivated state to an activated state, and detect a face and a face angle of the user. Also, in response to determining that the user intends to use the guide robot, the controller can trigger a voice conversation mode by activating the voice reception part, stopping the display of the at least one digital signage and outputting usage guide information for the voice conversation mode.

A social ability generation device includes a perception unit that acquires person information on a person, extracts feature information on the person from the acquired person information, perceives an action that occurs between a communication device performing communication and the person, and perceives an action that occurs between people, a learning unit that multimodally learns an emotional interaction of the person using the extracted feature information on the person, and an operation generation unit that generates a behavior on the basis of the learned emotional interaction information of the person.

A robot includes an operation control unit that selects a motion of the robot, a drive mechanism that executes a motion selected by the operation control unit, and a remaining battery charge monitoring unit that monitors a remaining charge of a rechargeable battery. Behavioral characteristics of the robot change in accordance with the remaining battery charge. For example, a motion with a small processing load is selected at a probability that is higher the smaller the remaining battery charge. Referring to consumption plan data that define a power consumption pace of the rechargeable battery, the behavioral characteristics of the robot may be caused to change in accordance with a difference between the remaining battery charge scheduled in the consumption plan data and the actual remaining battery charge.

A robotic system comprising: an input sensor; an electromechanical interface; an electronic interface; and a processor comprising hardware and configured to execute machine-readable instructions including artificial intelligence-based instructions, wherein upon execution of the machine-readable instructions, the processor is configured to: process an input provided by a user via the input sensor based on the artificial intelligence-based instructions; generate a first output signal that is provided to the electromechanical interface such that a movable component connected to the robotic system is put in motion, and generate a second output signal that is provided to the electronic interface such that a behavior or expression responsive to the input is rendered at the electronic interface.