MIT's Nexi robot displays facial emotions

MIT's Nexi robot is able to express human-like emotions with facial expressions. Its eyes, eyelids and jaws move according to emotion.

The Nexi robot was designed by Xitome Design in collaboration with MIT. As LiveScience.com describes:

The expressive robotics started with a neck mechanism sporting 4 degrees of freedom (DoF) at the base, plus pan-tilt-yaw of the head itself.

This design helps to time the movements so they mimic human speed. The Nexi robot’s face communicated with a greater range of emotions with their specially designed eyes, eyelids and lower jaws, each of which moves correspondingly according to the emotions. Nexi has a color CCD in each eye as well as an indoor Active 3D infrared camera in its head and four microphones to support sound localization. The robot also moves well with the uBot5 mobile manipulator developed by the Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics UMASS Amherst. The mobile base can balance dynamically on two wheels; Nexi has what amounts to a Segway-like body. The arms can pick up ten pounds; the plastic covering of the chassis can detect human touch. There are similar robots that compares to the Nexi’s range of emotions. They are the South Korean EveR2-Muse Robot and WD-2 Face Morphing robot. To know more about the Nexi Robot, click here.