Bonnie Gamane speaks wistfully as she recalls the day last year when a robot named Millennia visited the school she administers. What she saw were children with autism interacting with the robot in a way they had never before interacted with humans.
The students “love machines and mechanical things as a whole, and because there’s also the human response, they were getting a different type of feedback,’’ says Gamane, who is principal of Russell Bede, a school for children with special needs in San Mateo, Calif. “It was interactive in a way that “¦ was much more engaging [than most other toys] and kept their attention.”
Millennia’s brief visit was made possible by a grant its builder, International Robotics Inc. of Larchmont, N.Y., received. The funds allowed company staffers to visit schools around the country so its robots could interact with students.
Robots based on a humanoid form factor will eventually join us at home, in the workplace and in public places. Here’s what’s news in humanoid robotics.
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