Diego-san

A child sized humanoid robot with exposed electronics in the torso, arms and legs, and an overly large expressive child's face. — Diego-san is powered by pneumatic actuators. Photo: Andrew Oh/Javier Movellan/Calit2

Diego-san is a humanoid designed to study cognitive development. It's modeled after a 1-year-old baby, except it has a giant head to accommodate all the hardware that powers its expressive face.

Creators

UC San Diego, Kokoro, and Hanson Robotics

Year

2010

Country

United States 🇺🇸

Categories

Did you know?

Diego-san uses 27 servo motors to control his expressive face.

The robots child-like face shows an expression of suprise. — Its face can make different expressions. Photo: Andrew Oh/Javier Movellan/Calit2

History

In 2010, researchers at the Machine Perception Laboratory at UCSD, led by professor Javier Movellan, started developing Diego-san to study cognitive and social development in infants. The humanoid robot is modeled after a 1-year-old baby, with its body built by Japanese animatronic company Kokoro and its head created by Hanson Robotics, a company founded by roboticist David Hanson that specializes in ultra-realistic humanoid robots. The robot was activated in 2013, and it featured high definition cameras in the eyes and 27 servo motors controlling his expressive face.

Full body view of the child-sized robot. — The robot's body is mostly aluminum with acrylic covers. Photo: Andrew Oh/Javier Movellan/Calit2

The robot appears to smile. — The baby is happy. Photo: Andrew Oh/Javier Movellan/Calit2

Specs

Overview: Equipped with compliant joints driven by agonistic-antagonistic actuators. Capable of controlling the stiffness of each joint.
Status: Discontinued
Year: 2010
Website: inc.ucsd.edu/mplab/index.php
Width: 70 cm
Height: 130 cm
Weight: 35 kg
Sensors: Two Point Grey Dragonfly2 cameras, two microphones, two inertial measurement units, 38 potentiometers, 88 pressure sensors.
Actuators: 44 pneumatic actuators for body joints and 18 electric RC servos for the face.
Degrees of Freedom (DoF): 71 (27 electric servos for facial expression and 44 independently controlled pneumatic joints: Head and neck: 4 DoF; Trunk: 4 DoF; Arm: 8 DoF x 2; Hand: 3 DoF x 2; Leg: 7 DoF x 2. Each pneumatic joint has 2 degrees of freedom: position and compliance.)
Materials: Aluminum structure, acrylic shell, and rubber face.
Compute: Intel Xeon 2.8 GHz computer with 12 cores. Analog sensors and pneumatic actuators connected to the computer using a National Instruments data acquisition system.
Software: Ubuntu Linux OS and ROS (Robot Operating System) for sensor and actuator communication. OpenCV for visual perception; Python/Matlab/C++ for control system.
Power: Compressed air from external compressor.