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Inspired by cartoon friends like Flying Tinker Bell, Mio And Studio Ghibli Soot goblinsa team of researchers set out to show what a floating robotic companion might be useful for and how humans might interact with it. Led by Mingyang Xu of Keio University in Japan, and with participation from other institutions such as the MIT Media Lab, the team recently released a demo video.
Watch this: Soft flying robots just want to be friends
The video shows a lighter-than-air robot with fins that glide through the air, making it look like a floating white whale. It hovers without the loud buzz that accompanies most of them Drones. With its light build, soft body, and no pressure points, it can interact with humans with little risk of injury.
Robotics companies often struggle to create machines that feel safe to interact with and interact with emotionally, because rigid designs and inorganic appearances can lead to the annoying effect known as Uncanny Valley -The scary feeling people get when something appears Almost humanbut not entirely true.
Soft floating robots may have advantages over other designs when it comes to emotional connection and safe human-robot interaction.
Floating robots may overcome this concern by replacing robotic facial expressions with gentle, full-body movements, and enabling safer human-robot interaction through soft, flexible form.
The video showed soft floating robots that act as a dance partner, study companion, alarm clock, reminder, and source of entertainment. To see the robot in action, watch the video in this article.
