Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to providing a large variety of robot personalities. In certain aspects, a robot personality may be represented as a personality location in a personality space, which may be a continuous unidimensional or multidimensional space. The dimensions of the personality space may be based on one or more factors. Based on the personality location, an affective state may be maintained for the robot, which may be represented as an affect location in an affect space. The affect location may be updated based on one or more inputs. Accordingly, robot expressions may be influenced based upon the affect location, which in turn is affected by the personality of the robot in the personality space.

Abstract: A robotic apparatus includes a neck housing and a head housing. The head housing defines a sagittal axis, a frontal axis, and a vertical axis. A drive assembly is disposed at least partially within the neck housing and the head housing. The drive assembly is configured to move the head housing relative to the neck housing independently about the sagittal axis, the frontal axis, and the vertical axis such that the head housing has a range of motion that substantially corresponds to a human or animal head. The drive assembly includes a sagittal axle extending along the sagittal axis, a frontal axle rotatable about the frontal axis, and a vertical axle rotatable about the vertical axis. The vertical axle is disposed at least partially within the neck housing and offset from both the sagittal axle and the frontal axle along the vertical axis.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to providing a large variety of robot personalities. In certain aspects, a robot personality may be represented as a personality location in a personality space, which may be a continuous unidimensional or multidimensional space. The dimensions of the personality space may be based on one or more factors. Based on the personality location, an affective state may be maintained for the robot, which may be represented as an affect location in an affect space. The affect location may be updated based on one or more inputs. Accordingly, robot expressions may be influenced based upon the affect location, which in turn is affected by the personality of the robot in the personality space.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to robot perception extensibility. In certain aspects, a robot maintains perception data that represents its understanding of its surroundings. The perception data relates to a variety of objects and comprises information generated by a variety of components, such as sensors and software processes. In order to extend the perception capabilities of the robot, an extensibility interface is provided, which enables an extensibility device to annotate objects and to provide new objects to the robot based on the additional perception data generated by the extensibility device. As a result of incorporating the objects from the extensibility device into the perception data of the robot, the additional perception data of the extensibility device is available to software executing on the robot without requiring the additional effort typically necessary to extend the capabilities of such a device.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to robot memory management techniques. In certain aspects, a robot generates a disposition representing a time slice of the robot's understanding of the world. The robot repeatedly generates new dispositions as time progresses, thereby updating entries within the disposition as changes occur over time. Changes are evaluated based on various thresholds or other criteria to determine whether to memorialize them for later reference. Memorialized changes are used to supplement a disposition, such that the disposition comprises not only current information, but also historical information. Similarly, a disposition is supplemented based on an ontology, such that objects and relationships of the ontology are used to identify instances of such objects and relationships within the disposition. As a result, the robot is able to recall historical information and to use ontological knowledge of the world to generate a richer view of the world.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to robot skill management. In certain aspects, a robot may be capable of performing a set of skills. Accordingly, the robot may implement aspects of robot skill management to determine a skill to execute without requiring user input prior to executing the skill. In an example, a skill relevancy metric may be determined for a skill, which may be determined based on context information for the robot. Further, the robot may maintain metadata for the skill relating to previous instances in which the skill was executed. As a result, the robot may generate a skill importance metric based at least in part on the skill relevancy metric and/or the skill metadata. Skill importance metrics for the set of skills may then be used to determine a skill from the set. The determined skill may then be executed by the robot.