ACE is a robot that will find humans, ask for directions, even interpret the pointing gestures of silly humans to find its way. He even says thank you before going on his way. With ACE, German scientists have shown that robots lost in urban areas don’t need to rely on their own faculties to get from place to place.

This is the real world that the robot is roaming, not a controlled environment. After 5 hours and 38 interactions, ACE reached its destination. So it is actively gathering and using real world data to find it’s way. It doesn’t seem very efficient, but it’s a huge step. As they say, knowledge is power. I’d much rather have a robot that is able to adapt then a dumb machine following a route.

[New Scientist]

NEC’s PaPeRo robotic buddy is just like other home robots, but when you leave home he will still be helping you, because he doubles as an assistant in the car. It uses the knowledge it’s learned while aiding you around the house to give you directions.

For example, a driver is trying to get to Yokohama in Japan for a date. Based on previous conversations between the driver and the robot, the ‘bot will work out what it can with a home server and give you the best route on a dash-mounted GPS unit. The GPS unit has a little PaPeRo on the screen. If it doesn’t have enough information, it will ask you questions until it knows what it needs to and remember the answers.

Thanks PaPeRo. Now I can date girls. What’s that? No, she won’t come between us? Why must she die? Yes master!

[Tech-on]