Nina, an interactive humanoïd robot

The ANR Sombrero project aims to create a humanoid robot capable of carrying out standard neuropsychological tests to provide an early stage diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Gérard Bailly, a member of the Gipsa-lab's CRISSP team, shares: "By working with an iCub robot, which was developed as part of a European project, the xRobotex team has added a jaw and articulated lips to the robot so it can communicate in a life-like manner." These developments are designed to infuse a humanoid robot with abilities such as speaking, looking, facial expressions, head movement, arm movement and body language. "We also developed an immersive tele-operation technique that will allow a human pilot to perceive, understand and interact with the physical world from afar."
This tele-operation technique allows the robot to go through a training phase in which it gains experience by following orders from a medical professional. Once the robot has enough experience to build behavioral models, its autonomy can be increased. By training robots to do repetitive tasks, this project could free medical staff to focus on more complex ones. The project is organized by the Gipsa-lab with support from the LIG, the Laboratoire Interuniversitaire de Psychologie (LIP), Lab-STICC and Aldebaran Robotics.