Robots at Exhibitions

Her name is Ameca. She is 187 cm tall, has blue eyes, and has a bluish-grey complexion. She was born in Cornwall, at the headquarters of Engineered Arts, a company that creates humanoid robots. In Copernicus, she is the curator of “The Future is Today” exhibition. With the help of GPT, she communicates with anyone who wants to talk to her.

Ameca looks like she came from the future. As you approach her, you will see a human silhouette made of metal and plastic with exposed mechanical elements. She gently moves her body and arms, looking around like a human waiting for a friend. It's her face that draws attention – a bluish and silicone yet very realistic and expressive face of a robot. Ameca smiles subtly and glances around as if looking for someone in the crowd. As you approach and start speaking to her, she will notice you and focus on you. This is when you will have the opportunity to make full contact with the world's most advanced intelligent humanoid robot.

It is yellow and black, weighs 32 kilograms and measures 70 cm at the withers. Spot, the robotic dog, has arrived to live at the Copernicus Science Centre! Created by the American company Boston Dynamics, it is a breed of real celebrities whose astonishing motor skills can be viewed online. One of these dogs has found a new home at “The Future is Today” exhibition. You can steer it and see how much it can do! 

Contrary to intuitive beliefs, teaching the robot to speak and use AI is much easier than teaching it to walk and perform motoric tasks. Canadian futurist Hans Peter Moravec made this discovery in the 1980s. He described it: “It is relatively easy to make computers perform as adults in IQ tests or a game of checkers, but it is difficult or even impossible to program them with the skills of a one-year-old child in perception and mobility.” However, Spot’s creators took up the challenge by constructing a robotic dog whose design and software allow it to move like a real animal.

Babyclon® is a silicone robotic doll that resembles a new-born baby. It weighs 3 kilograms and measures 52 centimetres. Its built-in mechanism mimics the movement of the body while breathing. It doesn’t make any other moves. Its eyes are closed as if it were asleep. You will find it in the incubator, at “The Future is Today” exhibition. 

In many viewers, this robotic baby causes the so-called “uncanny valley effect”, in line with the theory that contact with a robot that looks and behaves like a human causes strange feelings such as resentment, fear or discomfort. However, some visitors react differently, expressing care and protectiveness. 

And how will you react? Come and see for yourself! Perhaps for you Babyclon® has not crossed the threshold of human resemblance enough to cause discomfort and send you to the uncanny valley.

He has the face of Nicolas Copernicus. He is tall (190 cm) and weighs 100 kg, although he doesn't look like it. Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, he can talk about anything and deal with the most difficult questions. The most advanced humanoid robot in the world has appeared in Copernicus Science Centre!

Our Copernicus communicates with the world with the help of the most popular language model – GPT3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). Chat GPT (available online since November 2022) is based on 20 billion parameters. And that is only 20 billion, since the full GPT3 model, which our robot is using, has 175 billion of them! Thanks to this, it can generate literally any kind of content by learning from the Internet and the training data. An “eye to eye” conversation with an AI is exceptionally emotional. And when the AI takes the shape of one of the most famous scientists, the impressions are impossible to describe! The robotic Copernicus looks the way we remember him from the famous Matejko's painting or old 1000 zł banknotes. The combination of history and new technologies creates a unique mixture which fascinates, surprises, and for some people, causes the uncanny valley effect (we are “afraid” of robots that resemble people too much).

Nicolas Copernicus from Cornwall

The Copernicus robot has arrived from Great Britain, from a town called Falmouth in Cornwall, where the company Engineered Arts is located, which creates humanoid social robots. Our famous RoboThespian and his successors from the Robotic Theatre also came from there. The constructors and programmers from Engineered Arts build robots that are more and more “human”. State-of-the-art ones can look like a living person thanks to a realistic look of their silicone skin and a construction that convincingly imitates our bone structure. A few dozen of actuators set around the head and neck give our robot the capability to mimic human expressions: eye, jaw and head movements, following an interlocutor's eyes, smiling while talking.

Not one, but a few AI's

At the moment, there is no Artificial Intelligence yet that could replace all functions of the human brain at the same time. In order for a robot to react to its interlocutors, understand and answer questions, a few programmes are needed. The first is responsible for detecting human faces and following them with eyes. Thanks to the second one, Copernicus understands human speech, recognises the language, and turns the words he hears into text. Another programme allows for an interpretation of the text and providing an answer. That is the so-called conversational AI (GPT3 model). A separate AI accounts for the robot's voice and tries to make it sound as natural as possible. The last programme is a so-called human behaviour module, ensuring Copernicus has the possibility to move – to imitate breathing, as well as subtle head, arms and lips motions. Due to the synchronisation of the aforementioned programmes, our robotic Nicolas Copernicus strikingly resembles a human.

Robothespian is the oldest humanoid robot in Copernicus. He is 13 years old, 175 cm tall, and weighs 30 kilograms. Its serial number is 0001, as it was the first robot produced at the headquarters of Engineered Arts in Cornwall. 

In 2010, Robothespian’s technological advancement was very impressive. It symbolised the coming future. His precise movements of hands, head, and LCD-screen eyes, which allowed him to reflect different moods, delighted everyone. 

He still stands at his post near the main entrance to Copernicus Science Centre. He welcomes and entertains our guests, acting as an actor reciting literary works and film fragments. He can also sing. To program the robot, you need to use the touch panel. You can choose his mood, gestures, the colour of the backlight and the words he says. 

Robothespian’s younger brothers look similar (as family members would) but have a greater range of movement. You can meet them at our Robotic Theatre, where they work as actors.