We are all fascinated by Sophia, a social humanoid robot capable of imitating human gestures and facial expressions. Now, Dinesh Patel, a computer science teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Mumbai, India, has developed a social humanoid robot prototype similar to Robot Sophia. The robot can speak multiple languages and can be used to answer the queries of the students, including math problems.
Named “Shalu,” the robot can perform many human gestures such as shaking hands, laughing, anger, and irritation. It can smile and speak in nine different Indian languages (Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Bangla, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Nepali) in addition to English along with 38 foreign languages viz. German, Japanese, etc. Dinesh has claimed that it is the first social humanoid robot in the world that can speak nine Indian languages.
Dinesh has also programmed a set of smart capabilities from recognizing and remembering people and objects to answering different questions. She can read news from newspapers, read horoscopes based on an individual’s date of birth, and also predict or forecast weather for the next 10 days for any location.
Robot Shalu was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream mission “Digital India Mission”, “Skill India Mission” and “Make in India Mission.” The robot has various applications, such as a Robo teacher in school, or a receptionist, or a companion for senior citizens and children.
For now, the robot is in its prototyped stage. Dinesh plans to use 3D prints of body parts for smooth movement with better quality motors. He will also use real latex human face mask to express their emotions with facial expression while also improving on the social conversation skills and capability to answer educational queries in many languages perfectly.
