Invited presentation by Daniele Pucci, Italian Institute of
Technology, Italy:
iCub3 Avatar System
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Daniele received the bachelor and master degrees in Control Engineering with highest honors from ”Sapienza”, University of Rome, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. In 2013, he earned the PhD title with a thesis prepared at INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France, with the supervision of Tarek Hamel, Salvatore Monaco, and Claude Samson. From 2013 to 2017, he has been a postdoc at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) working within the EU project CoDyCo focusing on the balancing problem of the iCub humanoid robot. From August 2017 to August 2021, he has been the head of the Dynamic Interaction Control lab, a group of about 20 members focusing on the iCub locomotion walking problem. In this period, Daniele also laid the basis for the "Aerial Humanoid Robotics", a new branch of Robotics whose main aim is to achieve flying humanoid robots. Daniele has also been the scientific PI of the H2020 European Project AnDy, and now is: task leader of the H2020 European Project SoftManBot, coordinator of the joint laboratory between IIT and Honda JP, principal investigator (PI) in the Camozzi-IIT and Danieli Automation-IIT joint labs. Lastly, Daniele is the coordinator of the ergoCub project, a 5 million, three year joint project between INAIL and IIT. Since September 2021, Daniele is the PI leading the Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence research line at IIT, a team composed of about forty members that combines AI and Mechanics to devise the next generation of the iCub humanoid robot. Concerning awards and recognitions, in 2009 Daniele received the ”Excellence Path Award” from Sapienza for his master studies. In 2019, he was awarded as Innovator of the year Under 35 Europe from the MIT Technology Review magazine for conceiving the iRonCub, the first jet-powered flying humanoid robot. Since 2020, Daniele is a visiting lecturer at University of Manchester. In July 2020, Daniele was selected to represent Italy at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI, conceived by Canada and France during their G7 presidencies) for the working group on COVID-19 response. In 2022, Daniele was selected as reviewer of EU projects. Also, in 2022, Daniele was the leader of the iCub team during the ANA Avatar XPRIZE, a four-year 10M$ international competition for making robotic avatars. Starting from 100 initial teams, the iCub team scored 2nd after semifinal, and 14th after finals because of a system failure during day-1 testing; the iCub team scored 1st in the specific category of walking humanoids. |
We present an avatar system that enables a human operator to embody iCub3, a new humanoid robot developed at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) paving the way forthe next generation of the iCub platforms. On the one hand, we present the humanoid iCub3 that plays the role of the robotic avatar. Particular attention is paid to the differences between iCub3 and the classical iCub humanoid robot. On the other hand, we present the operator technologies for a human to embody the avatar in terms of locomotion, manipulation, voice, and face expressions with visual, auditory, haptic, weight, and touch feedback. The system is validated by implementing several instances of the avatar architecture. First, we present the optimised architecture that allowed an operator in Genoa to visit the Italian pavilion of Biennale di Venezia, in Venice. The architecture was then extended for allowing the operator to carry payloads via the avatar and the overall system was tested during a live demo with the operator in Genoa and the avatar in Rimini, about 400 Km away, performing live show in front of about 2000 people. Finally, we show the avatar system that took part to the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition, with final ranking of: 2nd place after semifinals and - because of system failure on the first day of competition - 14th after finals; the iCub Team was ranked 1st in the specific category of walking humanoid robots.