What are the challenges facing humanoid robots?

Recently, humanoid robots have become very popular, which indicates that single-function robots and comprehensive-function robots are forming a situation of healthy competition and common development. However, in the rapid development of humanoid robots, there are still some problems that need to be solved, such as appearance design, control, human-machine interaction, ethics and cost-effectiveness. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and everything is moving in a positive direction.

It took about 1 million years for humans to evolve to walk upright. It takes about 3 years for the descendants of Homo erectus to run from birth, which means that it only takes about 3 years of continuous training for a child to maintain good balance and avoid falling easily. However, the most difficult thing for humanoid robots modeled after humans is to obtain a problem that is very simple for humans - how to obtain the ability to balance.

Of course, humanoid robots are still facing several problems that must be solved if they are to realize various human functions and interact with humans in all aspects (embodied intelligence).

Appearance design issues

The design of the appearance of humanoid robots is the basis and key to the development of humanoid robots. The reason why this is a problem is largely to meet the standards set by humans. For example, the appearance of humanoid robots should be as similar to humans as possible, but they should not imitate humans step by step and become a complete reflection of humans. Humanoid robots can be human-like, but they should not be replicas of humans, so as to avoid fear or discomfort in humans. At the same time, the appearance of robots must also match human cultural genes, social background, etc., to avoid causing moral aversion and ethical conflicts. Therefore, how to design an appearance that is both in line with human cognition and unique has become a major problem in the development of humanoid robots.

Of course, the appearance of a robot is not simply to imitate that of a human. It must also be considered that its appearance must conform to the structure, function, and usage of the robot itself.

In the design of the appearance, on the one hand, the safety of the robot must be considered. For example, when designing a robot, the robot's perception of the surrounding environment and its own safety must be taken into account.

On the other hand, the communication problem between robots and humans should be considered. In the process of developing humanoid robots, if we only consider the imitation of human functions, it may eventually lead to robots becoming more and more like humans, but they cannot realize the functions given to humanoid robots.

At present, the appearance of humanoid robots must meet the following requirements.

1. It must be of a certain height and stature.

2. It must have certain muscle strength and mobility.

Height and size issues

At present, the average height of humans is about 1.7 meters, but most humanoid robots are over 1.8 meters tall. The ratio of human torso and limbs is generally between 1:1.5 and 1:4, but when designing humanoid robots, in order to better maintain balance and lower the center of gravity, they often need a longer torso and higher leg ratio. If the torso and leg ratio are not long enough, the robot will lean forward or backward.

For humanoid robots, joint issues must also be considered. The range of motion of human joints is generally between 30 and 60 degrees, but humanoid robots require a larger range of motion, so the range of motion of joints is generally around 80 degrees. If the range of motion of the joints is not large enough, the humanoid robot will have imbalances such as leaning forward or backward during movement.

Muscle strength and mobility

Sufficient muscle strength and mobility are basic requirements for humanoid robots. When a humanoid robot moves, if its muscle strength is insufficient, it cannot maintain balance during movement. In the process of designing a humanoid robot, the following aspects should also be considered.

The first is the robot's joint freedom. Joints are the basic components of a robot's movements, such as arms, legs, and torsos. When designing, the robot's joint freedom should be fully considered. For example, the joints of arms, legs, and torsos can be divided into several degrees of freedom, which must meet the requirements of humanoid robots for motion and position control.

The second is movement ability. When designing a humanoid robot, it must be ensured that it has a certain level of movement ability. If it lacks a certain level of movement ability, it will affect the overall stability of the humanoid robot. The most basic movement ability is walking and standing.

The third is the degree of intelligence. The degree of intelligence refers to the robot's ability to perceive and make decisions about the environment, as well as its ability to interact with the surrounding environment. With the development of technology and related disciplines, the degree of intelligence will become higher and higher.

Intelligent control issues

The intelligent control problem of humanoid robots includes three parts: the robot's perception, decision-making and execution, which has long surpassed the general machine movement.

Perception refers to the robot's ability to obtain information from the environment; decision-making refers to the robot's ability to make reasonable decisions based on the perceived information; execution refers to the robot's ability to take action based on the decision.

Humanoid robots need to have the ability of keen perception, accurate decision-making and flexible execution in order to interact with humans efficiently. Therefore, how to achieve intelligent control of humanoid robots is an issue that needs to be fully studied and explored.

At present, the intelligent control of robots still mainly relies on human effort. Then it has to execute according to the human thinking mode, but in this process, there may be behaviors that humans do not understand. Therefore, humanoid robots will inevitably face some control problems.

First, it is impossible for robots to think exactly like humans. They lack the purpose and plan that humans have when thinking, and are controlled to a greater extent by environmental stimuli.

Second, there is still a huge gap between the ability of humanoid robots to perceive changes in the surrounding environment and that of humans, mainly because they have no direct connection with the surrounding environment.

Third, humanoid robots may repeat human mistakes, such as being hit or bumping into other robots, and when performing dangerous tasks, dangerous actions due to misjudgment, accidents caused by operating errors, and action deviations caused by fatigue. It is difficult to eliminate external interference, so humanoid robots must solve three problems: how to enable them to correctly perceive external information; how to enable them to think in accordance with human thinking patterns; how to enable them to correctly handle the relationship between external interference and their own reactions.

Human-computer interaction issues

As a tool for interacting with humans, humanoid robots need to have good human-machine interaction capabilities. The robot's speech synthesis capabilities, the ability to perceive and generate body movements, and the ability to express emotions all require in-depth research and optimization. In addition, the way robots interact with humans also needs to respect human habits and cultural background to avoid discomfort or conflict.

Humanoid robots should be able to communicate effectively with humans and have emotions that are similar to humans. However, at present, it is still difficult for humanoid robots to understand human emotions, let alone emotional communication. At present, the main function of humanoid robots is to perform tasks. For example, through their powerful arms, they can complete various tasks, but this is only a basic function. In the future development of humanoid robots, they will have more and more complex functions, such as intelligent interaction, emotional communication, autonomous learning, etc. Communicating with humans through artificial intelligence technology will become an important research direction.

At present, there are several main problems in the process of humanoid robots interacting with humans: first, the interaction efficiency between humanoid robots and humans is not high; second, humanoid robots need to constantly learn new knowledge to improve their intelligence; third, the interaction is too single; fourth, the human-computer interaction is too complicated.

The solutions to the above problems are as follows: first, improve intelligent interaction capabilities through technology; second, improve the efficiency of human-computer interaction through augmented reality technology and voice recognition technology. The advancement of artificial intelligence technology will play a greater role in this.

The key issue is how to make humanoid robots have similar feelings to humans, how to think like humans, and how to express emotions like humans. These cannot be easily solved!

Human-like feelings

The feelings between people are the same, for example, we feel that someone is looking at us or talking to us. If a humanoid robot does not have similar feelings, it cannot communicate like a human. If it does not respond to human expressions, humans will think that it is just a robot with a mere appearance, not a real robot.

In response to this, scientists have begun trying to use artificial muscles to imitate human expressions and movements. For example, Google researchers have developed an artificial muscle system called "Emotion-driven" that can imitate the muscle movements of the human face.