Ameca – New at the HNF

The humanoid robot Ameca has moved into the HNF and is impressing visitors with its facial expressions, gestures and astonishingly complex communication. 

Unique facial expressions

Ameca stands 1.87 metres tall, weighs 62 kilograms and is equipped with 61 motors, 27 of which are for facial expressions alone. That makes the robot’s responses appear very natural. A human-sounding voice, advanced speech synthesis and sophisticated facial expressions make communication with the machine surprisingly easy and natural. Ameca uses the ChatGPT AI system to converse with visitors, has a wide vocabulary and correct grammar and speaks almost all standard languages. 

Ameca can smile or frown, blink, wrinkle its nose and wink. It can also move its upper body, arms, fingers and head. However, its legs are rigid, so locomotion is not possible. 

The face is grey and there is no hair, which means that the robot should not be assigned a human skin colour. 

Conversations with visitors

It was developed by the English company Engineered Arts, based in Cornwall, which already produced RoboThespian, also available at the HNF. Ameca has been designed to further develop interaction between humans and machines. 

Engineered Arts unveiled the robot at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January 2022. Since then, 29 models are now in use worldwide, mainly in museums and science centres, but also in scientific institutes and universities.