Development of a Humanoid Robot for Education and Outreach

Abstract

Robots have engendered a certain public fascination since the term was first coined by Josef Čapek in the 1920s [1]. In particular humanoid robots have the capacity to excite (and in some cases intimidate) the general public about the future developments in the field. Several researchers have harnessed this interest in outreach and education activities. This paper presents the design of a novel modular humanoid robot for education and outreach. The robot uses a chain drive system actuated by servomotors to achieve locomotion, while the location of the centre of gravity of the robot is altered by using a sophisticated weight distribution system in the ‘torso’. The robot has six active degrees of freedom in its legs and one in its torso. A review of humanoid robots used in education and outreach is presented before an exposition of the design, realization and testing of the robot. Future publications will report on the evaluation of the effectiveness of the robot in outreach activities.