Meet Anushka, an inexpensive humanoid robot created from a set of materials found in a dump yard.
Rather, when people think of humanoid robots, they imagine something from an Isaac Asimov sci-fi novel or something as humanlike as Dolores from the TV series Westworld. With advances in generative AI and the presence of social bots like Hanson Robotics’ Sophia, a future filled with robots seems close. It is, however, the journey to get to that future that is fascinating.
Little wonder, then, that I wouldn’t have missed for the world the chance to catch a glimpse of the humanoid robot built within the confines of an unassuming lab at one of the engineering colleges located in the pulse of India.
As I walked into the Krishna Institute of Engineering and Technology in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, I was excited, and a little bit skeptical, about meeting Anushka—a humanoid robot designed by students and professors. Anushka works as a receptionist, receiving visitors and answering their queries. However, there are more significant plans for the future: health care and consultancy.
Extremely anguished by the violence and widespread vandalism of temples, targeted attacks on Hindus. The proper role of government is to keep us safe. We too are citizens of this country, we want security,” a Hindu speaker told the protesters in Bogra as cited by Dhaka Tribune.
Introduced in March 2024 in Lucknow, Anushka caught the media totally by surprise, as it was believed that she would probably one of the first humanoid robots to have autonomous movement developed in North India. One quite significant reason, however, was that her design was centered on Vedic principles .
The Technology Behind Anushka
Anushka is built around master-slave technology, where she is able to mimic the gestures of a human. The i7 processor in the robot acts as her brain, and it controls a network of microcontrollers and servo motors through which her neck, jaws, eyes, and hands are made to move.
Is Anushka Self-Aware?
At this juncture, humanoid robots like Anushka can not be considered self-aware because true Artificial General Intelligence is still far away. At present, that doesn’t really mean Anushka is unintelligent.
“There are four stages of Artificial Intelligence in Anushka—one where she listens to you, another where with the help of computer vision, she sees and understands the images, the third where she communicates back using the natural language processing, and the last where she moves her motors in sync with everything else, of course. Each stage is crucial since they co-operate to work it out this way for the smooth running of her activities,” explained the team.