Giving robot companions animal-like or anime-style faces and voices could maximise their emotional appeal to users, according to new research which could help guide the growing field of social robotics. Social robots can provide companionship and comfort to their owners by mimicking human or petlike behaviours. Although the robots are a fast-growing sector of the tech industry, surprisingly little academic research has explored how their designs can be optimised to make the robots as expressive and emotionally engaging as possible. In a new paper set to be presented at a conference this week, researchers from the University of Glasgow show how they have been working to close that research gap. With the help of a group of volunteers, they used augmented reality technology to test dozens of different combinations of faces and voices overlaid on the body of an existing social robot called a Qoobo, which has a soft, cushion-like body and a swinging tail.

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SceneSmith, developed by MIT researchers, uses AI to build detailed 3D environments where robots practice household tasks and expose faulty plans before entering real homes.

Are Humanoid Robots Ready to Be Deployed? Neo and a dozen other robots with human forms are scheduled to hit the market. "The same robot that can land a backflip might not be able to walk up a flight of stairs," a researcher said. On a recent sunny day in Silicon Valley, I visited the industrial headquarters of 1X Technologies. Security was tight, so I had to put a sticker over my cellphone's camera and talk my way out of signing an N.D.A. before I was brought into an enormous space to meet Neo, the company's home robot. Neo stands five feet six and has no facial features except for two black cameras in place of eyes. The robot is a humanoid--its design is inspired by the human form--and its proportions are a blend of those of the median American male and those of the median American female. But Neo has no skin. Instead, it wears a beige nylon turtleneck bodysuit, gloves, and padded shoes over a see-through carapace. Under that is a skeleton made up of more than a hundred whizzing motors and cordlike artificial tendons that control Neo's limbs. Neo's cozy, minimalist aesthetic allows it to blend into the background. If it served me an espresso at a café, I'm not certain I would look up from my phone. The robot weighs just sixty-six pounds, and I was able to pick it up in a bridal carry. It communicates through a speaker in its chest, using several different voices; the default one is in a calm but authoritative masculine register, an A.I.-modulated mixture of several voice actors. Neo can talk, listen, and respond to commands.