Development of an Autonomous Humanoid Robot, iSHA, for Harmonized Human-Machine Environment

Abstract

Our research aim is to build a harmonized humanmachine environment where people and machines can interact with each other naturally, seamlessly, and intuitively. Based on the sketched scenario, we have developed a humanoid robot, iSHA (interactive Systems for Humanoid Agent), designed to behave like and interact with people. We implemented an intelligent robotic architecture that integrates goal-oriented subsystems by taking into consideration the flexibility and scalability of the system. iSHA has an upper body resembling a human in shape and a mobile base with two wheels. The upper body with a head and two arms has 24 DOF. Two wheels equipped under the body provide safe and robust locomotion. Each eye equipped with a small CCD camera, small microphones built into the head, and touch sensory devices on the body respectively provide the robot with binocular vision, auditory and touch sensing ability.