In a darkened robotics laboratory in Lyon, Peter Dominey and Stéphane Lallée are playing a game with a cute-looking humanoid called iCub. The game is Toybox and the object is to uncover a toy trumpet that Lallée has just moved from a box to iCub's right. For a human three-year-old such a game is child's play, but until now it has been beyond the scope of most machined intelligences. Not for iCub however.
"I will put box on the right," says iCub, making sure it has understood Lallée's instructions. "You will put the toy on the left. I will put the box on the middle."
Staring intently at the box, iCub reaches out with its left hand, grasps the box and moves it to the centre of the table, uncovering the trumpet in the process. Next, instead of telling iCub to pick up the trumpet, Lallée gestures with his finger, indicating different positions on the table where he has moved it. Much like a real child interacting with its parent, iCub's eyes swivel from side to side, its luminous pink eyebrows and mouth glowing with excitement. "You have moved the trumpet. Found it. You have moved the trumpet. Found it."
"Game over," says Lallée abruptly. iCub tilts its head towards Lallée, fixing him with its large black eyes. If you did not know better you would think iCub was disappointed. "Check on my internal state. That was pretty fun. We keep playing this game."
Part of the Chris project – short for Co-operative Human Robot Interactive Systems – iCub is at the vanguard of a new generation of social robots that is fast changing perceptions of what human-robot interactions will look like in the future. For iCub isn't just any old robot. Measuring 93cm, it is a fully fledged humanoid "child" robot equipped with sophisticated motor skills and sense abilities, including vision, sound, touch, balance and proprioception – the ability to sense the position of its arms and body in space. These facilities enable iCub to crawl on all fours, grasp and manipulate balls and other objects and turn its head so as to follow gestures or direct its gaze.
Unlike conventional robots familiar from assembly lines, iCub isn't programmed to perform a specific set of actions or tasks. Instead it acquires skills naturally by using its body to explore the world and gather data about its relation to objects and people in that world, much as a two-year-old learns by interacting with his or her environment. Through its ability to direct its gaze, grasp and manipulate objects, and "read" gestures as it co-operates with human tutors on shared tasks like the Toybox game, iCub can learn words and skills and develop co-operative strategies. There are even indications that, given time and practice, iCub may be able to develop more sophisticated cognitive skills, such as the ability to imagine the mental states of others [as explained in the box on the Sally Anne task , below].
"We've got used to seeing robots in the factory but in the 21st century robots will increasingly be living among us," says Dominey, whose work in Lyon is jointly funded by Inserm, the French national medical research agency, and CNRS, France's national scientific research foundation. "These robots must be able to take our perspective and co-operate with us and, if our plans change, they must be able to adjust their behaviour accordingly. Most important of all, they must be safe."
These days you can hardly open a newspaper or switch on the TV without being confronted with the latest robotic advance. From self-steering vacuum-cleaning robots such as Roomba (£379.95 from John Lewis) to cyborg-style robot suits (such as HAL) and the cruise control in your BMW, suddenly robots are everywhere, invading our offices and homes and, it seems, making increasing demands on our emotional lives.
Take Paro, a plush toy version of a baby harp seal. Paro does little more than coo and wag its head and tail, yet more than 1,000 have been sold since its creation in 2003, making it one of the most popular therapeutic robots. And where Paro leads, other "socibots" are sure to follow. For £55,000, Engineered Arts, a company based in Cornwall, will supply you with Robothespian, a life-sized interactive humanoid that comes with an interactive touch-screen that can play greetings, sing songs and converse in several languages.
Simon the Robot
Simon the Robot poses for a photo shoot at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Daniel Borris/New York Times/Redux/eyevine
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