It Smiles, it Frowns -- it's a Robot!

Machines that walk, talk, and feel emotions aren't science fiction anymore.

Walk by Cynthia Breazeal's workbench in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Artificial Intelligence Lab, and you'll see a hunk of metal filled with electric motors--a machine the size and shape of a human head. Actually, what you can't help noticing is that the head looks lonely. Its big, red rubber lips are turned down in a frown, its fuzzy eyebrows are heavy, its curly pink ears appear crestfallen. Its huge baby-doll eyes scan the room, searching for someone.

When Breazeal comes into the room and sits down in front of Kismet, her gender-less robot, its mood changes. Kismet's eyebrows go straight up as it gazes straight back at its creator. Kismet wiggles its ears up and down. Then Kismet smiles.

Next Breazeal talks baby talk, cooing like a new mother. This keeps Kismet interested, smiling and watching. Then, Breazeal begins to sway back and forth. Uh-oh. Kismet's not happy. It looks annoyed, says Breazeal, because it's overstimulated--too much information at one time. Kismet turns up a lip, raises one eyebrow, lowers the other. The message is clear: Stop this nonsense!

Breazeal built Kismet for two reasons. She wanted to build a robot that could interact with people in a human-like way, like robots in old Jetsons' cartoons. Why? "Someday you could have a robot in your house that does things for you," says Breazeal. These robots could help prepare meals, clean house, and do chores--making them ideal caretakers for elderly or bedridden people, Breazeal explains.

She also created Kismet as part of ongoing research to understand human intelligence. Specifically, Breazeal wanted to learn more about how people interacting socially with one other affects their learning and development. So she built a robot that was like an infant--"the simplest possible human," she says. Breazeal made Kismet cute and responsive, so people would want to treat it the same way they treat a baby.

Its "brain"--a network of eight computers working together--controls Kismet's actions. Each of the robot's functions is directed by software created by Breazeal. She programmed in algorithms (math problem-solving procedures) that process what it "sees" in the same way a human brain processes visual information. She designed motor behavior that mimics the way the brain and spinal cord directs human muscles to move. Down the road, Breazeal will program Kismet to speak. Though it can't talk, Breazeal did give Kismet feelings.

Kismet's "feelings" are really programmed reactions to a stimulus (something that causes a response), in the same way your frown or smile is an automatic reaction. When confronted by a menacing person, for example, you may react with an angry or fearful expression. If Breazeal shakes a toy violently in front of Kismet's face, it makes Kismet "afraid." Kismet responds with an expression of fear, or turns away to avoid the toy.

But Kismet's behavior isn't "canned." "You can't tell what it's going to do next," says Breazeal. Each interaction is different; for the robot, each exchange provokes its own action. But Kismet hasn't been programmed to display every emotion. For example, Kismet can't show "surprise." For the robot to be shocked--or to learn something new--Breazeal has to program Kismet so that the algorithms are changed by new experiences. This would mimic the way human brains change as new information forges new connections between brain cells. Then learning will become Kismet's desired stimulus: learning will make the robot happy. That will bring Breazeal closer to achieving her real goal. "To me," she says without hesitation, "the ultimate milestone is a robot that can be your friend."

ROBOTIC VISION

When Breazeal arrived at MIT in 1990 to work on her master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science, she knew she wanted to build a robot. She was fascinated by robots being built by Rodney Brooks, an MIT professor and innovator in artificial (computer) intelligence. At the time, Brooks was building insect-like robots with simple sensors that enabled them to avoid obstacles. Some of the technologies he developed were used to build Sojourner, the planetary rover that roamed the surface of Mars during the 1997 Pathfinder mission.

Breazeal had grown up watching Star Wars and Star Trek. When she saw what Brooks was doing, she thought: "He's building R2-D2! That's what I want to do!" Before long, Breazeal followed in Brooks' footsteps, helping to build two insect robots and designing the computer software that made them move.

SMART MACHINES

Then Brooks wanted to move beyond insect robots and create an android inspired by Commander Data in the Star Trek TV series. The humanoid called Cog, for "cognitive" (or thinking), would learn intelligence by interacting with the world.

Within a few years Cog could make eye contact and move its head to follow a moving object. Cog could move like a human. It could throw and catch a ball, play with a Slinky, point at things, even listen to rock and roll and beat out the rhythm on a snare drum.

Meanwhile, Breazeal began studying the process of cognitive development in children. "I was interested in the idea that infants are the simplest people. So I started thinking about building a type of robot that focused on non-verbal communication. I wanted to have face-to-face exchanges, with expressions and eventually vocalization. And that's when I started building Kismet, in the summer of 1997."

KISMET IS BORN

Breazeal took a spare Cog head and reengineered it, lengthening the neck, adding a jaw. She got the eyes from a special-effects supplier in Los Angeles. He also helped her embed a color CCD camera, a sensor that detects light, color, and movement, into the pupil of each eye. She installed small motors to move facial features--eyebrows that lift and arch, ears that lift and rotate, jaws that open and close, and lips that bend, straighten and curl. Breazeal used integrated circuits, or interconnected electronic parts, to drive the facial motors and eye and neck motion. And she gave Kismet a powerful computer brain.

Breazeal wrote special computer software to create what she calls "drives" and "emotions." Drives are similar to human needs. There are three in Kismet: the social drive becomes a need for people; the stimulation drive seeks objects like toys; the fatigue drive creates a need for "sleep."

Brezeal programmed Kismet to respond to the human voice. Its computer-brain analyzes the pitch of the voice, which flows in through Kismet's "ears"--a microphone--and reacts. A smooth, cooing voice triggers a smile. Kismet even has a strategy for self-protection. The robot can doze off if its environment becomes too stimulating. The choppy, loud sound characteristic of an angry voice will make Kismet look afraid. Then, at maximum stimulation, when it can't take any more, Kismet tunes out and looks away.

Just as a baby uses expressions, kicks, and cries to manipulate its mother into satisfying its needs and desires, Kismet is designed to engage people in a wide variety of ways that satisfy its drives, which are needs for human interaction and stimulation. Kismet is driven to interest people and to keep them engaged.

Breazeal says that someday robots and humans will coexist. And robots won't be just appliances; they'll be friends. And if they're successful, will it be a person?

"How will we know?" she answers.

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In more than 70 hospitals around the world, courier robots called Help Mates trundle down halls, summon elevators, and deliver meals, in auto factories, robots assemble and paint cars and weld metal parts. In Sweden, appliance maker Electrolux is product-testing a sleek, round robotic vacuum cleaner.

In Washington, D.C., a talking robotic tour guide called Minerva recently showed visitors around the halls of the Smithsonian Museum. Minerva treated people in its path with a frown and a stern request to move.

Other robots tackle tasks dangerous to humans: Rosie, a remote-controlled robot on wheels, is taking apart a U.S. nuclear reactor that is no longer in use. Houdini cleans up radioactive and hazardous waste worldwide, Robotic mine hunters clear mine fields.

Do these real-world robots finally herald a new age of androids? Yes, says Hans Moravec of Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. In 30 years, he foresees helper robots with brain power similar to monkeys. These robots will be able to say how they feel and might give you flowers if they think you're sad.

"We'll see a certain level of useful humanoid robots within 30 years," agrees Atsuo Takanishi, at the Humanoid Research Laboratory of Tokyo's Waseda University. He's built a gleaming robotic head called WE-3RII. In the future, it could be attached to Waseda's robot, named WABIAN, which is learning how to move like a person--and even dances. Robots will never duplicate humans, Takanishi claims. But scientists think robots will evolve in simple steps just as humans did--although 10 million times faster. They expect robots to surpass human intelligence in the next 50 years. Sorry.

--Fenella Saunders