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.

If you’re easily lost in large malls, you’ll soon have a robot friend helping you out. Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR) based in Osaka has demonstrated a humanoid robot that recognizes people who seem lost and helps them on the spot. His name is Robovie, and he seems 50% creepy and 50% cute. I would want him to help me if I were lost, but I would also be wondering how he plans to disembowel me and take over the world with his machine friends. His Stormtrooper colors don’t help put me at ease, either.

His helpfulness was recently put on display at the Universal Citiwalk in Osaka. In an earmarked area measuring 100 square meters the robot scanned every passerby’s face. He had the help of 16 cameras, 6 laser range finders and 9 RFID tag readers installed in and around the area that acted like eyes and ears. He proceeded to watching 20 people at a time, and read their actions to group them in 10 different categories like waiting, wandering, running, etc.