Continuous humanoid interaction: An integrated perspective - gaining adaptivity, redundancy, flexibility - in one

In this paper, we take the view that human-like response can only emerge through a richly integrated humanoid system. By taking such a view, we have confined ourselves in the pursuit of developing a richly integrated humanoid system. We present a humanoid system - an upper body humanoid robot - with active real-time stereo vision, an auditory system for spatial hearing, and proprioceptive systems, with a high performance motor control system. The context in which we wish to establish our research is in the context of continuous humanoid interaction. Interaction with the environment, as well as interaction with people, all form part of this establishment. We present our approach to the problem of interacting with a continuum of multiple stimuli, while producing meaningful responses. We will show by using a relatively simple mechanism for integration, it is still possible to realise a vastly responsive system. Hence, providing a system that is adaptable through redundancy, and flexible for integration. Our presentation includes a new humanoid robot system currently being developed for complex continuous interaction. An example of our humanoid robot in continuous interaction is presented. The system is able to track a person by sight in an unmodified environment, perform real-time mimicking of the upper body motion of the person, track a sound source (spatial orientation), and physical handling of the system in a compliant manner is also allowed. Each of the sub-systems of our humanoid is also introduced, with experimental results of each presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.