RoboThespian

An expressive humanoid robot with a bright round face, a shiny torso with sensors, and two arms with black jointed fingers.
RoboThespian, designed to perform. Photo: Engineered Arts

RoboThespian is a robotic actor, meaning he's an actor who is a robot, as opposed to a bad actor who is human. It speaks more than 30 languages, and you can find it on stages worldwide.

Creator

Engineered Arts

Year
2011
Country
United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Categories
Features
A spinning view of an expressive legged humanoid robot with a bright round face, a shiny torso with sensors, and two arms with black jointed fingers.
Interactive
See a 360° view of RoboThespian. Photos: Engineered Arts

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Did you know?

A RoboThespian named Max Q answers space questions at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The humanoid robot stands on a platform next to a podium with a display and other equipment.
RoboThespian and his entourage. Photo: Engineered Arts
RoboThespian gets a checkup. Video: Engineered Arts

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History

RoboThespian was developed by Engineered Arts, a robotics company founded by Will Jackson and based in Cornwall, England. Designed as a "robot actor," RoboThespian was the first in a series of entertainment humanoids developed by the company over nearly 20 years. The robot features a range of expressive movements, speech, and sounds that can be animated in advance or in real time. In 2015, RoboThespian performed alongside two humans in a play called "The Uncanny Valley," which made its New York City premiere at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

Specs

Overview

Equipped with text-to-speech engine and male and female voices. Programmable via graphical interface or API. Scripted and teleoperation modes.

Status

Inactive

Year

2011

Website
Width
41 cm
Height
175 cm
Length
30 cm
Weight
33 kg
Sensors

Cameras and infrared depth sensors (for gesture and pose recognition).

Actuators

Festo pneumatic actuators and brushed DC motors.

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
26
Materials

Aluminum alloy and plastics.

Compute

Single board computer with Intel dual-core CPU, two Marvell Xscale PXA270 CPUs, and five Parallax Propeller P8X32A microcontrollers. External control unit: Intel Core i7 computer.

Software

Gentoo and Ubuntu Linux OS. Custom core software, OpenNI, and Python scripts.

Power

24-V DC power supply and air compressor

Cost
$88,000 (standard model)