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“Robots are amazing. We can do things that humans can’t.”
That was Desdemona, a humanoid robot.
She's been on display at Portugal's Web Summit tech event, to showcase an artificial intelligence technology that's rapidly grown in 2023: making robots sound more human-like than ever before.
Another humanoid robot has been on display at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in London, which uses the AI chatbot - Chat GPT - to create natural sounding dialogue for the robot they call AMECA.
It's the brainchild of Engineered Arts, a UK-based company.
“Artificial intelligence and robotics are rapidly advancing fields of technology. Humanoid robots are also becoming increasingly sophisticated.”
Will Jackson is the CEO of Engineered Arts.
He says they believe robots like their prototype will replace key pieces of technology.
“So we will see a move away from using tablets and screens, touch screens, to just talking to our technology.”
But besides being the star attractions at tech shows, robots have also had a role to play this year in the food and beverage industry.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have said they've trained a robotic "chef" to learn from food preparation videos.
Using computer vision, the robot is able to identify different objects and features and replicate simple recipes.
The waist-high BellaBot machine is adapted for serving customers.
The robot can greet guests, lead them to their tables, deliver food and drinks and ferry dirty dishes to the kitchen.
At the European Robotics Forum in Denmark, the secretary general of EU Robotics, Reinhard Lafrenz, said those kinds of robots could prove useful in the future.
“You are here in a labor shortage situation. Therefore you need more automation, more robotisation.”
This year has also seen a tree planting robot to help Peruvians reforest parts of the Amazon devastated by logging and agri-business.
In the centre of the forest is a solar powered nursery where the YuMi robot plants the seeds of trees that are fast disappearing in the wild.
According to rangers, the robot is capable of planting 600 seeds within hours.
Juan Julio Duran Torres, the Vice President of the Junglekeepers group, says it plants trees which are indigenous to the Amazon using seeds like lupuna, pashaco and ironwood.
“The mining - the logger, they do have - at this point they have advanced technology. They can destroy so much. So if we have robots here to help planting trees and local people would be involved and learning technology, it'll be like pretty much battling together.”
But the technology has also been designed for fun.
In China, at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, synchronised robots have danced in harmony along to music.
They are equipped with 34 smart flexible joints at the neck, shoulder, wrist, elbow and knee, and have enough dexterity to shoot a basket.
Zen Koh is the co-founder of Fourier Intelligence.
“The system itself can achieve self-balance walking and perform different tasks. We can program it to sit, stand and jump. You can program the arms to pick up utensils and tools.”
At the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco, a robotic cat called Nushi was on show.
It was crafted by a Hollywood creature artist and can "learn" music and come up with original dance routines.
Ishan Shapiro, Creative Director of Babka, says Nushi is meant to show that the future of robotics and AI doesn't have to be utopian and scary.
“The reality of the development of these technologies is going to disrupt every part of our society, culture and life. And so we're here, they are here, to invite participation and playful exploration and prototyping.”
