It was considered science fiction when the robot maid, Rosie, appeared on the Jetsons cartoon more than 50 years ago.’ There are still many hurdles to overcome before the helpful robot becomes a reality, including being able to detect and express emotions. As part of the RIKEN Guardian Robot Project, Wataru Sato has been developing an android that can express a wide range of emotions through its facial expressions. An android head that looks like a young boy, Nikola, was created.

There are 29 pneumatic actuators inside Nikola’s face that control the movement of artificial muscles. Head and eyeball movements are controlled by six additional actuators. pneumatic actuators use air pressure to control their movements, making them virtually noiseless and smooth. On the basis of FACS, which has been used extensively to study facial expressions, the team put in the actuators. For example, ‘cheek raiser’ and “lip pucker” are two of the many facial action units that make up common emotions like happiness or disgust, and the researchers incorporated these action units into Nikola’s design.

There is a problem with studies of emotions, especially how people respond to emotions. As difficult as it is to conduct a well-controlled experiment with live people, it’s also less natural to look at photos or videos of people and observe their reactions. Sato believes that with the help of androids like Nikola, we can have our cake and eat it, too. “We can control every aspect of Nikola’s behavior, and at the same time study live interactions.” In the beginning, we had to determine whether or not Nikola was able to communicate through facial expressions.

An expert in FACS scoring could identify each of Nikola’s facial action units, indicating that his facial movements closely resemble those of a real person. People were able to identify all six of Nikola’s basic emotions, including happiness, sadness, fear, astonishment, and disgust, albeit with varying degrees of accuracy. Due to the fact that Nikola’s silicone skin is less elastic than human skin, it is unable to form wrinkles. The lack of a nose wrinkling action unit meant that emotions like disgust were more difficult to identify.

Robotics like Nikola can be used in social psychology and even social neuroscience in the short term, says Sato. When compared to human co-conspirators, androids are better at controlling their actions and can facilitate rigorous empirical research into human social interactions.” When the speed of Nikola’s facial movements was systematically controlled, people were asked to rate how natural his emotions appeared. Some emotions like sadness were found to have a slower natural speed than others, like surprise.

However, the Guardian Robot Project’s long-term goal is to create an android that can help people, particularly those with physical disabilities and those who live alone. We can expect to see emotional androids in a variety of real-world applications, such as the care of the elderly, and Sato believes that they will help to improve human well-being.