Rise of the machines

With the advancements being made in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning in NTU, how close are we to creating a human-like android?

by Derek Rodriguez / Illustration by Don Tan and Vivian Lim / Videos by Ei Ei Thei

MRS PERSONALITY

It’s easy to see how a robot can have a better memory than us, but what about one with better social skills? NTU’s Nadine can read a person’s face and gestures to predict intentions, and she can respond appropriately too. Her skillset has already landed her gigs at the ArtScience Museum and at insurance company AIA, where she worked as a customer service agent. Don’t mess with her though, we’re told she has quite a mouth on her.

SECOND SKIN, SHARP EYES

Once belonging to the sci-fi realm, cyborgs with exoskeletons have taken another step towards reality with a new NTU AI system that harnesses skin-like electronics and computer vision. Wearable transparent and stretchable sensors mark a sizable leap from previous-generation sensors that were bulky and had poor contact with users. The accompanying gesture recognition system is no slouch too, being able to reliably read signals from the sensors in dark and poor conditions.

SNIFF OF LIFE

The “best before” label would be obsolete in the robot world. Putting the human sense of smell to shame is an NTU-developed electronic nose that sniffs out spoilt food. Like a real nose but with superhuman sharpness and accuracy, it “smells” the gases produced by pieces of meat and quickly decides how fresh they are.

THE HEALING TOUCH

Everybody hurts, including robots now. A made-in-NTU AI-based “mini-brain” gives robots the ability to feel pain. Not only can they tell where they have been injured, they can patch themselves up with an ion-gel material.

SAFE PAIR OF HANDS

Fresh from creating a robot capable of the hardest task known to man – assembling an IKEA chair – the NTU team responsible has rolled out a robotic arm with a soft touch. Christened “Archimedes” and one of the first in industrial trials to have both high accuracy and high agility, it is designed to pick up delicate optical products like lenses and mirrors and deposit them with sub-millimetre precision.

This story was published in the Jan-Mar 2021 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.